Scam job interview

[Pierre ZFP]

My son, who is looking for a job, got an email today telling him he has been offered a job interview:

"Hi

As a result of your application, I would like to invite you to attend an interview.

You will have an interview with the department manager, Jenny Wilson. The interview will last about 30 min.

Please bring three reference (If available), as well as a copy of your ID, e.g. Passport, Driving License to the interview.

Please contact me on 07064848636, in order to arrange an interview

We look forward to seeing you

 

Best regards

Charles Brown"

This is completely bogus. People all over the internet have received these emails with exactly the same message in the email.

The number is a premium number. It is a trick to get you to call the number expecting to book an interview but you end up forking out for the premium line.

　Here is some more information from people who called the number:

http://www.webtrickery.com/?p=740

This isn't some stupid 'pass this on or you will die' chain mail, I am just giving you a heads up to hopefully pass it on to help someone else.

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

I'm job hunting at present. In fact, it's only the second time I've had to search for a job in my life, as work has always seemed to have a knack of finding me. But it is so different today, getting a million and one emails from various online agencies, it's like a minefield.

There are so many scam jobs amongst everything too. Recently, I applied for a job that looked quite legitimate and pretty exciting. Pretty good pay, health benefits, pension plan etc. They will even train you. When they invited me for an interview in Philadelphia, I was quite excited and decided to find out some information on the company, to be prepared for the interview. I told my mother in law and she told me that the address they had given me was in a really upper market part of Philly, so it was all looking good.

It was when I started researching the company that I noticed something strange. Their website was quite small for such a corporation that claims to have companies such as Walmart, AT&T, Verizon and so on as their clients. 4 pages in all. There was no address or phone number posted anywhere on it. When I checked the domain name registration information, I discovered the web site was only 5 months old.

Next, a google search with the company name with the word scam after it. Up came hundreds of results. The whole company is basically a door to door sales thing, where employees have claimed to have spent days and wasted petrol with the big promise of a big pay cheque at the end of it. Of course that cheque never arrives. Now I am aware of this scam, it's amazing to see how many other similar type scams I can pick out just by the words used. Can't believe they're allowed to get away with it. It's hard enough trying to find a job, let alone having to sift through many ads filtering out scam jobs too.

I'm so glad that I was able to research online and discover the scam, as driving up to Philly, parking and so on would have been a big waste of time and money.

[Pierre ZFP]

Yeah it's such a low life thing to do.  If like my son you have applied for many, many jobs and not even had a reply, then a promising offer comes through, your heart leaps a bit and if you're not cyou find youself well out of pocket.

I suppose some people will try and exploit any vulnerability

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

Yeah, it is tough, and it does get you excited when you get that interview, but once you work out it's a scam you get a sense of satisfaction. It is a pain though.

I'm applying for so many jobs, so few responses if any. You'd think if you can apply automatically, you'd be able to receive a response automatically too.

Oh well. In the past month I've had three interviews, but no offers as yet. Working freelance on web and graphic design in the meantime to keep myself busy and get some kind of income. If my freelancing takes off, I may end up starting a business, but for now I'm just keeping it simple and will pay my taxes at the end of the year...

[Pickles]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

This isn't some stupid 'pass this on or you will die' chain mail, I am just giving you a heads up to hopefully pass it on to help someone else.

[/quote]

The scam that your son has seen is unfortunately one of many, and deserves wide publicity. Some have even been advertised via JobCentres from what I have heard!

This is a particularly despicable attempt to take advantage of people who in many cases are already disadvantaged, in many cases desperate for work and who can ill-afford to lose any money.

[Pommier]

It seems to becoming more common. On the radio today (You and Yours I think) they were talking of a jobs scam being run from Spain, where UK expats were employed to phone people in Britain offering them work in exchange for a registration fee. The OFT had managed to shut down the operation and prosecuted people, but there are bound to be others as yet undetected.