2020 has the United States diving into a recession that is surpassing the Great Depression of the 1930s which can be predominantly attributed to the nationwide effect of the pandemic and its ensuing restrictions. Survivors of the associated lockdowns were able to transition their office jobs from the corporate workspaces to telecommuting work from home adaptations.
Other displaced workers were eligible for special unemployment benefits, while others were not, affecting millions of families across America. When times are rough, it leaves Americans desperate to find ways to take care of their families, and desperate people do desperate things. Sometimes they turn to crime, develop mental health issues, turn to drugs and alcohol which leads to increased domestic violence, and suicidal ideation.
This with the greatest resources, amidst the 2020 pandemic, they turn their attention to online job search. This makes sense based on the fact that the pandemic survivors are finding employment as remote workers working from home.
Then there is that criminal element again, that seeks to exploit Americans in trouble, struggling to find ways to survive in an uncertain world.
1. Secret Shopper
You may receive or respond to an offer to become a secret shopper. Who doesn’t like shopping, and the ability to be paid for doing it? Sounds incredible. As a secret shopper, you are given assignments where you go to a particular store in your area and purchase a specific list of items.
Your job includes forwarding the items to the shopping investigative service that you work for, along with your report on your experience, and an invoice for any expenses incurred for your service. Only you will never be reimbursed or paid for the items you purchased and sent.
2. Remote Payroll Processor
Let’s say you are offered a job to be a virtual payroll processor. The job pays $36,000 a year, and all you need to do is to print payroll checks and send them via UPS or FedEx to employees. You do this for a month, then get your first $3,000 check, generally plus a bonus, which keeps you working diligently until you are notified by your bank that the check did not clear. “No problem,” says your new boss, they are sending a replacement-check plus an additional bonus for your trouble. They trust you will keep up the good work until that one does not clear.
3. Crowd Shipping
Or you land an online job as a crowd-shipping processor for a recognizable online retailer, where you earn $1,500 a month for receiving packages from various warehouse providers, combine the packages and send them to the customer on the behalf of the retailer. You agree to process 20 to 40 packages per month. Not a bad arrangement, as you are earning nearly $40 per package. Almost sounds too good to be true.
Just because you are being contacted by an employer you recognize is no reason to let down your guard because cybercriminals have no problem posing as Fortune 500 companies who exploit and rip-off new remote worker hires. Do not be one of the victims of such a nefarious con, and by all means, do not become an accessory to the criminal activity.
“Sounds too good to be true,” is a common element in these online job scams. Reshipping cons come in many different shapes and sizes. You already know that if it sounds too good to be true, your paycheck is likely to bounce, and you may have played a part in an organized crime syndicate’s reshipping scam and may suffer criminal charges yourself. It is on you to exercise due diligence and check out these offers that sound like they may not be for real.
And you? You will have to try to explain to the authorities why you are not guilty of fraud and counterfeiting and may be subject to prosecution regardless.
The online job con basically looks like you are being offered a legitimate work from home opportunity from a legitimate company. You will be made a generous off. In most cases, you will be offered remuneration that feels like its higher than you might expect.
Generally, in retrospect, most victims of an online job con remember receiving an internal intuitive hit accompanied by the thought that “something doesn’t feel quite right,” about this.
4. Check Fraud
Check fraud is a common element of these felonious fake job scams. It is reported that authentic company checks can be obtained through criminal sources, or cashier’s checks of real banks via the dark web, which clears all initial security clearances by your bank at the time of deposit.
Only later, when your bank is notified by the initiating bank of the fraudulent item are you notified, and by that time, it is too late. You have already been ripped off, and your fake employer is long gone.
Some of these offers will require an upfront fee to qualify for the job being offered, others will prepay you with a phony cashier’s check, which you can use to in a sense pre-pay your expenses to participate or set up your home office. This prepayment can include a sign-on bonus for you to keep above and beyond your startup costs.
Nonetheless, all the while, there is no job, and any check, even if drawn on an authentic business’ account, cashier’s check, or otherwise, will not clear, leaving you holding the money bag.
And if you have performed any “work duties” on the behalf of your masquerading employer, you are out that as well.
Your identity may have been compromised, as you may have given the cybercriminals your sensitive personal and banking data in the application or “employment” process, which they may use elsewhere within the cybercrime syndicate.
