Author: Rosalie Willis
There are truly no words to describe how scammers always keep up with everything to scam people. When remote working becomes the solution to effectively adjust to the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic, scammers also seem to upgrade their way of deceiving people.
As a matter of fact, nearly one out of five workers are contacted for a suspicious job opportunity, tempting them with a remote work setup.
What’s more alarming about this issue is that it is related to identity fraud issues.
According to the survey in which about 2,200 American adults participated, 17% of the participants had seen or been contacted about a highly suspicious job opportunity. Also, among the adults who partook in the survey, ages 18-34 were revealed to be the most targeted victims of remote job scams.
Knowing more about the remote job scams
Due to the pandemic, many workers have lost their jobs. Of course, many did not waste time to looked for other job opportunities. Unfortunately, scammers have been well-aware of the struggles of people. Thus, they started baiting workers with remote job listings.
In particular, about 21,600 fake business and job opportunities were reported. And the numbers are just for this year.
Based on the Federal Trade Commission, those remote job listing scams caused Americans nearly $86 million in losses. That’s genuinely terrifying, especially since everyone experienced the real struggle of the pandemic, and scammers did not hesitate to victimize people at any chance.
The fraudster provides false hope for workers by pretending to be from a reputable company. Once a worker becomes interested in the job opportunity, there will be an instant phony interview, in which the motive is to ask for work-related supplies upfront. As other scams work, once the money is sent, it goes together with the fraudster’s connection.
The additional fraud trends
Unfortunately, there are other fraud trends aside from job opportunities. In fact, even people who are qualified to receive disability benefits are among the targets.
Criminals steal personal information and use them to file for disability benefits. Hence, the case of disability fraud significantly rose 85% year-over-year. Moreover, the issue of unauthorized credit inquiries have also risen to a higher percentage.
More is happening, and everyone is needed to put an end to the horror. For instance, there must be no hesitation in reporting when there are already obvious signs of identity theft because fast investigations help prevent such fraud trends. Otherwise, people who are not aware might fall victim.
Takeaway
With all the fear of scammers, it will be helpful to doubt some offers to avoid being among the victims. If the particular offer is too good to be true and seemingly unrealistic, it is more practical and safer to avoid it without thinking twice. Such offers are hard to trust, especially if they are too tempting. As for the job opportunities, it is wiser to check their reliability first. Nowadays, there is no such thing as being too careful, after all.
