Viewer has warning after scammer impersonated Florida nonprofit to offer him job, fake check, demand to buy work-from-home equipment
CHICAGO (CBS) -- What's worse than a job rejection? How about getting hired by scammers?
A viewer reached out to CBS 2's Tim McNicholas to warn other job hunters not to fall prey to the scheme the viewer did.
The job seeker in this story asked to remain anonymous, because he is still on the lookout for opportunities after his most recent prospect fell through.
So what went wrong?
He applied for what he thought was a remote customer service position at Pine Castle – a Florida-based nonprofit helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
After messaging and interviewing with the so-called hiring manager, Jim Blake, he landed the job.
The next step for our viewer was purchasing his work-from-home equipment - with a $4,820 cashier's check from his new employer.
But there was a problem with that check.
"It's pretty obvious that this is a bogus check," said Professor Bill Kresse of Governors State University, also known as Professor Fraud.
We brought in Kresse to help us understand where things went wrong. The obvious red flags are that the check is printed in different fonts – and is also remitting the name of the remitter, which should be Pine Castle.
"It looks to me as if it was a cut and paste deal," Kresse said.
Another red flag was the extensive work from home equipment our viewer was supposed to purchase - which even included a laminator.
Although the scammer pretended to be from Pine Castle, the information he provided about the company was farfetched. The scammer claimed the nonprofit had 107 affiliates and was based in Italy.
"They essentially stole the identity of what looks like a very worthy nonprofit in Florida," Kresse said.
We called Pine Castle. There is no Jim Blake working there, they are not based in Italy and do not have any connection to that country, and they do not have any positions that require a laminator.
"This is bad on so many levels," Kresse said.
Once the scam victims deposit the so-called check into their own accounts, they're even directed to a phony website to buy that work-from-home equipment. Luckily, our viewer's bank flagged this as a fake, so he never bought anything.
So how can you verify a job is legit? Be sure to call the phone number on the company's website and make sure everything checks out.
