Identity thieves target social media influencers and college students in latest job scams

Britney Smith was new to the world of Instagram influencers, but in the last six months she’d cultivated a strong following on the social media platform and garnered positive feedback on her outfits and lifestyle tips. With a strong base of support, Smith decided she was ready to expand her following and make some money in the process. So, it was rather serendipitous when she received an email from someone claiming to be a “brand ambassador manager” with one of Smith’s favorite fashion brands. The brand manager offered Smith what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime: free clothing for her to model on Instagram and big payments if she tagged the brand’s clothing in her posts. But there was a catch — Smith would need to send them her bank account information before she could receive the clothing.

This story is fictitious, but it’s representative of the latest attempt by fraudsters to use job-related scams to steal people’s personally identifiable information (PII) and financial information. This time the targets are social media influencers seeking fame and fortune online. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns consumers that fraudsters masquerade as “brand ambassador managers” for well-known companies and offer brand ambassador jobs with the promise of lots of money to promote their products online by showing and tagging them in social media posts. To accept the offer and receive the free products, all the potential victim needs to do is send the fraudster their PII — including their important banking information — that the fraudster says will be used to pay the influencer for promoting the products. But once the fraudster receives the victim’s banking information, they can wipe out the account balance. The scammer can then use the purloined PII for other fraudulent purposes. The game of fraud is endless. (See “Job scam targeting influencers,” by Larissa Bungo, FTC, Oct. 17, 2023 and “Influence peddling? Bogus ‘brand ambassador managers’ scam prospective influencers,” by Lesley Fair, FTC, Oct. 17, 2023.)

According to influencer marketing software company GRIN, in these types of influencer job scams, fraudsters often target fledgling creators seeking to boost their profiles online. The FTC says that scammers also target people with many social media followers. Fraudsters seek teens and young adults who are active online and looking for ways to earn extra cash while in school. (See “Understanding Influencer Scams: 9 Red Flags and How to Spot Them,” by Quinn Schwartz, GRIN and “Scam Alert: High school and college students at risk of influencer scams,” by Amber Raub, CBS 12 News, Sept. 12, 2023.)

The Brandbassador site provides the following red flags to look for if a “brand ambassador manager” contacts you for a promotional opportunity:

• Bad emails. The messages will appear unprofessional and riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and images of the products are poor quality or pixelated.
• Unverified social media accounts. Influencer scam messages often redirect to a website; influencers should check that the web address has the brand’s recognizable, official domain name. Also beware if you’re contacted by a brand without the blue check mark indicating that it’s been verified by the social media platform. A company without the blue check mark might be a scam.
• Requests for personal information. According to Brandbassador, legitimate companies generally don’t request bank account information or personal information upfront.
• Demands for money. Reputable companies won’t ask influencers to pay for the products they’ve agreed to promote. (See “Ambassador Marketing and Brand Scams: 5 Things You Need to Know,” by Marike Watson, Brandbassador.)

The FTC has the following helpful advice for influencers:

• Don’t give them your personal or financial information without doing some research first. Look up the name of the company along with words like “scam,” “review” or “complaint.” You might discover that other people have lost money to this company.
• Contact the company directly. Use a phone number or contact method you know to be legitimate — not the contact info or website the brand ambassador manager gave you. If you can’t confirm that the offer is real, walk away.
• Spot the red flags. Is the brand ambassador manager using a personal email account or phone number not affiliated with the company they claim to represent? That’s a sign you could be dealing with a scammer. (See “Job scam targeting influencers.”)

Job interview scam

In December 2023, the FTC reported that identity thieves are scamming college students searching for summer jobs and internships with fake job interviews to collect PII. According to the FTC, the interview scam usually works like this: Someone claiming to be a recruiter from a Wall Street firm, tech company or other well-known employer contacts a college student via social media, claims to have a connection at the student’s school, and says that the college dean or professor has recommended the student for the company’s management program.

The FTC reports that this so-called recruiter might drop names of faculty members, campus landmarks and memories of their days at the school to make their pitch convincing. Then, they arrange a series of virtual interviews between the student and the scammers posing as company executives before making the job offer on official-looking letterhead with the company’s logo. Once the student has finished the interviews and accepted the fraudulent offer, the recruiter has the student fill out paperwork asking for their Social Security number, bank account and driver’s license information and other PII. The FTC says that sometimes the recruiter will send the student a check as a “signing bonus,” but the student must send some of that money back to pay for a company phone or laptop. (See “A job scam that college students – and your HR team – need to know about,” by Lesley Fair, FTC, Dec. 27, 2023.) The FTC provides the following advice for college students who might encounter this too-good-to-be true interview process:

• Check the recruiter’s references. Identity thieves often use publicly available information from college websites to fake their stories. Contact anyone the recruiter name drops directly to verify if they know the recruiter. Alert your school’s career services center if the recruiter’s story doesn’t check out.
• Look at the email address that the recruiter uses. Does it appear to be a personal email address? Professional recruiters generally use a corporate email address to contact job prospects and not a personal email address such as an @gmail.com account.
• Contact the company at a phone number you know to be real and not one given to you by the recruiter before you even think about providing your personal information. Stop the interview and call the company to verify that the job offer is legitimate. (See “A job scam that college students – and your HR team – need to know about.”)

If you think you’ve been a victim of a job interview scam, report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Avoid these common work-from-home scams

The brand ambassador scam and the job interview scam are only two of the recent online employment schemes that identity thieves have cooked up to obtain PII. Job scams abound on the internet, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic caused many people to seek work they can do from home. Fraudsters pitch their work-from-home scams to potential victims as the ideal way to earn thousands of dollars with minimal time and effort, but first victims must purchase useless starter kits, training and certificates before they can start earning money. (See “The rise of employment scams in the digital age,” by Mandy Yousif, CFE, Fraud Magazine, July/August 2023 and “Job Scams,” FTC.)

Some work-from-home schemes involve a fake check component in which victims must deposit a check from the fraudster into their personal checking account and then send some of that money back, usually via wire transfer or gift card because the fraudster claims that they’ve overpaid the victim. But the outcome is a triple whammy for the victim. The check will bounce, the victim will lose the money they sent to the fraudster, and the bank will request reimbursement for the bounced check. The FTC provides information on some common work-from-home job scams:

• Reshipping scam. A fraudster ships the victim a package and instructs them to reship the package to another address after the original packaging and receipts have been destroyed. The fraudster then tells the victim to provide their PII so that they can get their paycheck. But the fraudster isn’t sending that information to payroll — they’re taking the victim’s PII to use in other fraud schemes. When the victim tries to contact the fraudster’s company in search of their paycheck, they’ll find that the phone number has been disconnected and the company’s website has been scrubbed from the internet.
• Merchandise resell scam. Fraudsters tell potential victims that they can earn money by buying high-priced merchandise for a low price and then selling it at a higher price for a profit. The catch? The victim must pay for the merchandise before the fraudster ships it. But the fraudster never ships the product, and, if the fraudster does send a product, it’s usually junk.

It’s important to follow-up on an online job offer you receive with an internet search to verify that the company or person who’s hiring you is legitimate. See if the company has received complaints about being a scam; even if you don’t uncover any complaints about the company or person, it doesn’t guarantee that the job isn’t a scam.

The FTC offers these additional steps you can take to protect yourself from falling victim to any job scam:

• Talk to someone. Whether it’s a family member or a friend, describe the offer to them to see what they think. Someone else’s opinion can help you spot any red flags, and it also gives you extra time to contemplate the offer before accepting the job.
• Don’t pay for the job. An honest employer will never ask a potential employee to pay them for work.
• Don’t fall for the check scam. Turn down any job offer if the employer says they’re going to send you a check to deposit. Legitimate employers don’t send potential employees checks to deposit and then tell them to send part of it back to them. Honest employers also won’t tell potential employees to buy gift cards with the check.

I’m 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 Central Washington University. 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’s Pacific Northwest Chapter and serves on the ACFE Advisory Council, the Editorial Advisory Committee and the inaugural CFE Exam Content Development Committee. Holtfreter was the recipient of the Hubbard Award for the best Fraud Magazine feature article in 2016. Contact him at doctorh007@gmail.com.