Employment fraud at an all-time high in North Texas, Better Business Bureau says
ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Steven Sims needed more income to support his family.
A response to his online profile included a job application that sounded like just what the Arlington father, who was tired of working overnights in retail, wanted.
"It sounds good, 28 paid vacation, 14 sick days, 401k, they tell you they got it all," he said. "I can do this during the day, make almost the same amount of money, and be at home and spend more time with my family."
Sims spent a month shipping packages, including laptops. But the $3000 paycheck he was expecting never came.
"I had shipped out six or seven items [and] all of a sudden, the site where I login to work at is under maintenance," he recalled. "When I looked at it, I said 'ooh, I think this is going to turn out to be a scam.'"
Sims learned that the company was a fraud. He now believes he was probably shipping stolen merchandise that thieves didn't want traced to them.
Employment fraud has never been worse in Texas according to the Better Business Bureau. In the first three months of this year alone, 231 cases have been recorded. That's more than double the same timeframe over the past four years.
The amount of money lost is also increasing. Between January and March last year, victims lost $15,195. This year, that number rose to a staggering $128,189.
The desire for extra income is one of the reasons more people are being victimized.
Amy Rasor, the Better Business Bureau's Fort Worth Regional Director, said "I think another big part of it is the pandemic made us all work from home, and so now work from home jobs are not as uncommon as they used to be."
Some of these employment scams are so elaborate they even include over the phone job interviews, something Sims says he went through.
Anthony Williams took an online job offer buying gift cards and electronics to ship overseas. "The position was a purchasing supervisor," he said.
He trusted the company after it transferred $20,000 to his credit card.
But he's on the hook for all of it now after using the money to make purchases and shipments before finding out it failed to clear on the other end.
"My credit report is starting to take a hit," said Williams. "Before, I had great credit, I didn't have any debt. Now I've got $20,000 in debt and the credit card company - all they want is their money."
Both of these victims want others to learn from their mistakes and never accept an online job offer without thoroughly researching the company first.
