The Better Business Bureau says it’s continuing to see a lot of people falling for employment scams.
BBB Wisconsin spokesperson Lisa Schiller says most employment scams they see are a variant of the bad check scam.
“Scammers sending fake checks and saying, ‘this is for your remote work at home job, go cash, this, you know, use the money for supplies, etc, and then send the rest back to us.'”
Lisa Schiller says these scams continue to hit people ages 18 to 34, who might have lost their job due to COVID or are looking for a better job.
“Consumers are having their information taken off at different sites such as Indeed. They’re contacted, and then they’re offered a job. And they’re told that they need to give personal information such as a checking account so that they can be paid direct deposit.”
That information can be used to conduct further scams, and scammers also like to pair this with sending bad checks to the victims to get the money that way. Schiller says if you encounter something shady in your job search, report it to the authorities.