Scams abound: phony online job postings, student loan forgiveness and much more

Gary Johnson was searching for a job. He found a posting online that appeared to be from a well-known organization. The job description matched his background and allowed him to work from home, so he applied for the opening with his personally identifiable information (PII). The job offer was fake, and a fraudster scammed Gary out of hundreds of dollars.

The case is fictional, but it represents an example of the years-old phony online job-posting scheme.

According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), fraudsters use the names of established employers in their fake online postings. The job openings, of course, offer excellent pay, telework options and money to help fund a home office. After fraudsters receive a job seeker’s PII, they send a check to the victim for, say, $5,000 to deposit in the victim’s bank. The fraudster tells the victim to keep $1,000 as a salary advance and send back $4,000 to supposedly fund costs for a computer and other office equipment. The fraudster usually requires the victim to send the money via a money transfer or gift card.

But guess what? The victim doesn’t get the job, never receives the office equipment, loses their PII and owes their bank a fee for the bounced check. (See “Job hunting? Look out for phony job postings,” FTC, June 23, 2022.)

The FTC provides this advice:

• Verify job openings before you apply. Visit the official website for the organization or company you’re applying for. Most include a career opportunities or jobs section.
• See what others are saying. Look up the name of the company along with words like “scam,” “review” or “complaint.” The results may include the experiences of others who’ve lost money.
• Don’t pay for the promise of a job. Legit employers will never ask you to pay to get a job. Anyone who does is a scammer.
• Never deposit a check from someone you don’t know. An honest employer will never send you a check and then tell you to send them part of the money. That’s a fake check scam. (See “How To Spot, Avoid, and Report Fake Check Scams,” FTC.)

If you paid a scammer, immediately ask the gift-card or money-transfer company to reverse the charge. (To learn more about how to reverse different types of payments, read “What to Do If You Were Scammed,” FTC.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection scam

In this new imposter scam, fraudsters — posing as agents and officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — contact potential victims to try to con them into sending them money — usually in the form of gift cards, transfers or cryptocurrency — and sharing their PII. (See “Scammers pretend to be U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” by Kira Krown, FTC, June 2, 2022.)

Fraudsters might send you a recorded message saying that “illegal goods were shipped in your name and have been intercepted.” Or they might talk about a “diplomatic pouch” or tell you that a warrant is out for your arrest. They might tell you that you need to supply your bank account or Social Security number.

The FTC offers advice:

• CBP never uses gift cards, cryptocurrency or wire transfers.
• Don’t trust caller ID. Scammers can make their phone numbers look real even if they’re not.
• Check with CBP if you’re unsure about whether a call or email is real. Never return phone numbers from caller ID, or left in voicemails, emails or social media messages. Instead, type the agency name into a search bar and click on its webpage to find contact information.
• CBP won’t call you out of the blue with promises of money or threats.

The FTC reported it received in 2021 almost a million reports about impersonation scammers that robbed victims out of $2.3 billion. In 2022, impersonation scams rank as the FTC’s No. 1 reported scam. Imposters commonly masquerade as agents from government agencies or other well-known organizations. (See “Protect your Medicare number, your other info, and your money,” by Bridget Small, FTC, June 6, 2022.)

Student loan (un)forgiveness scam

With U.S. federal debt relief forgiveness programs waxing and waning, scammers — masquerading as agents from the Department of Education — are busy. They might text, email or call students to inform them that, for a fee, they can wipe out their entire academic debts by disputing them. They often ask students for federal student aid IDs, which fraudsters use to steal their money and PII. [See “Scammers are offering student loan (un)forgiveness,” by Terri Miller, FTC, May 27, 2022.] (On August 24, 2022, President Biden announced federal student debt forgiveness of $10,000 for individual borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year. He also extended a payment moratorium until the end of the year.)

The FTC offers advice:

• Federal loan forgiveness programs already exist, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and the Teacher Loan Forgiveness programs, to name a few. The deadline for the PSLF limited waiver program is October 31, 2022.
• Don’t share your FSA ID. Dishonest people will use that information to break into your account and steal your identity.
• You don’t need to pay for help. There’s nothing a company can do that you can’t do for yourself — for free. If you have questions about your loans, contact your loan servicer. And any announcements on federal student loans will come from the Department of Education, not random calls, texts, emails or social media messages. (See studentaid.gov.)

Spot one of these scams? Tell your friends, and then tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Pro- or anti-abortion scams

The U. S. Supreme Court on June 24 overturned Roe v. Wade. Beware of scams in which fraudsters masquerade as fake abortion-rights or anti-abortion organizations asking for your money and PII. Before you part with these financial resources, check out the organization to see if it really exists.

Here to help

Please use information about these scams in your outreach programs and among your family members, friends and co-workers.

As part of my outreach program, please contact me if you have any questions on identity theft or cyber-related issues that you need help with or if you’d like me to research a scam and possibly include details in future columns or as feature articles.

I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll do my best to help. I might not get back to you immediately, but I’ll reply. Stay tuned!

Robert E. Holtfreter, Ph.D., CFE, is a distinguished professor of accounting and research at a university in the U.S. Northwest. He’s a member of the Accounting Council for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a research consulting organization and a member of the White Collar Crime Research Consortium Advisory Council. He’s also the vice president of the ACFE Pacific Northwest Chapter and serves on the ACFE Advisory Council and the Editorial Advisory Committee. Holtfreter was the recipient of the Hubbard Award for the best Fraud Magazine feature article in 2016. Contact him at doctorh007@gmail.com.