PASADENA, Md. — A Pasadena woman who is seeking remote work is warning others about the flood of job scams targeting people looking for work-from-home opportunities.
As a server, Lisa Owens spent most of her time on her feet until a car accident left her with a broken femur and no transportation.
"I wasn't able to go back to work right away. And, of course, you need to work. Bills don't stop even though you have something like that. So that's when I started looking for the remote work," Owens said.
But her job search led to a series of scam attempts. She received messages from job postings on Indeed letting her know positions were filled, but offering alternative opportunities.
"We've referred you to one of our clients. So that's like a, oh, there's hope, you know, there's a rainbow there. So that's what started all this actually," Owens said.
She sent over her resume thinking she'd caught a break. The scammers told her the job involved making travel arrangements and working as a personal assistant.
"They even sent me a check," Owens said. "Out of the blue overnighted me a check for $2,864. I'm thinking, hot damn, I won the lottery."
But when she looked at the check more closely and used a third-party check cashing service instead of depositing it directly into her bank account, she discovered the truth.
"Instead of putting it in my bank account, I went through a company called Ingo. They're an online check cashing company," Owens said.
The check was fake, as was the job. And the scam offers kept coming.
"Since I've been aware of this, it's been four, and that's only been in the past two to three weeks. In fact, I got one not even just a few days ago," Owens said.
Another fraudster posing as a property management company asked her to post rental listings on online marketplaces, making her part of the scheme.
"So I went on the website that is supposed to be theirs, and the house was actually for rent. It is a legitimate listing except that it was for $1,000 more and the security deposit was different. They were asking me to post for a $1,000 security deposit," Owens said. "I said, well, if I'm posting these, they're going to be contacting me. It's my Facebook and they said well. You're going to just forward them to this number."
Owens knew better but also understands how easy it is to get pulled in with the promise of a large payout.
"Be aware, be vigilant, and sadly, research everything. It might be a dream job, but it might not be legitimate, and that's the sad thing," Owens said.
In an email to WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii, Indeed sent this statement:
"Indeed puts job seekers at the heart of everything we do. We have a dedicated search quality team who goes to extraordinary lengths deploying a variety of techniques to assess the suitability and validity of job listings. Indeed removes tens of millions of job listings each month that do not meet our quality guidelines. In addition, Indeed will not do business with an employer if their job listings do not pass our stringent quality guidelines. We encourage job seekers to report any suspicious job advertisements to us, or if they feel it necessary, to make a report to the police. We encourage all jobseekers to review our Guidelines for a Safe Job Search."
In their Guidelines for a Safe Job Search, they encourage job seekers to report suspicious ads and warn users to never accept money upfront for work they haven't performed. Job seekers should look for email addresses with company domains and be skeptical of especially lucrative or flexible work-from-home positions.
Click here for instructions on how to report a potentially fraudulent job listing on Indeed.
The postings that targeted Owens are no longer on Indeed. It appears the scammers pose as reputable companies, tell applicants jobs have been filled but to contact someone else for details on another opportunity to make it seem more legitimate and avoid detection.
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