I have a confession to make: I’ve been scammed before.
I know what you’re thinking. But Jasmine! You’re too smart to fall for a scam!
Oh friend, I wish I could say you were right. I’m writing this because I know from firsthand experience.
Ever since remote work really became en vogue in the last several years, scammers are everywhere. And by God, they are BOLD. By now, I know exactly how to spot a scam right away before I even agree to an interview.
If you’re new to the freelancer space, entering a new industry or trying out remote work for the first time, here are 5 things to look for when being propositioned for a job or a freelance gig.
🚩#1–They don’t have a LinkedIn page.
You should always be searching LinkedIn for the person (and their company!) when they are propositioning you. Before you do anything else, make sure they’re a real person. Linda, honey, lookit! MAKE SURE THEY ARE REAL FIRST!
Linda! Honey!! Listen to me!!
Scammers will be slick; they’ll occasionally pick the real name of someone who used to work at the company. But the LinkedIn page is a desert. They’re hoping you don’t look too far into their background and just trust their word for it.
But baby, we getting hip to the gig!
A reputable hiring manager, HR representative, Talent Specialist, etc. should have:
Actual LinkedIn engagement (especially with their company page and coworkers)
A picture that doesn’t look like a stock photo or AI
Several previous jobs at real companies listed
Real recruiters will also likely have a LinkedIn Premium account. If not, scroll down to their skills. Other real people will have endorsed them on these skills. Bonus if they have recommendations from LinkedIn Premium members. That’s an extensive amount of work for a scammer to make up. While these people may be crafty, they aren’t that smart.
🚩🚩#2–They thank you for applying…but you don’t remember applying there.
Scammers are banking on you applying often or sending out a lot of proposals every day. They’re expecting you to have not kept track of where you’ve applied or who you’ve contact. If the company name isn’t familiar, your Spidey sense should tingle immediately. The email address will look like it could have come from an HR or Careers department—it did not. This is meant to gaslight you and make you feel ridiculous/careless/forgetful for questioning their intentions.
Of course joeschmo@companycareers.com is a real person.
Scour your email and all of the jobs pages you have active applications on and cross-check with the potential scammer email. You can also use a site like <a href=https://www.hunter.io/email-verifier>Email Verifier</a> to confirm the address of people who work at that company. If the addresses aren’t matching or if you can’t find anything, take it as a sign.
Ok, it’s not going to look like this. But if the vibes are off, frickin’ listen!
🚩🚩🚩#3–The spelling/grammar of the email is terrible.
Meh, it may not be this obvious. But you will absolutely notice it.
This should make alarm bells SCREAM in your head. If you’re meant to be conducting business in English, the person making hiring decisions will be someone fluent in English. Period. This is a non-negotiable to me and should be for you, too. These days, almost every publishing page or email account has some form of spell check. If every word is capitalized, the person is using inappropriately formal English or there are punctuation mistakes that appear too frequently, the hairs on your neck should stand up. No one who has a letterhead or professional-looking email signature should be making common errors that even the laziest of auto-correct should catch.
🚩🚩🚩🚩#4–They want to conduct a “text-only pre-interview screening” in a third-party app.
My face when I read, “Please follow this link to open a typed response chat interview in Skype.”
If you’ve gotten this far, now is really the time to run. These scammers will make you answer many (but very basic) interview questions to appear as legit as possible. These are your run-of-the-mill interview questions, a la “What is one of your weaknesses in the workplace?” Your guard is down a bit and you’re typing out your best material. Written response questions aren’t necessarily unusual; companies will pre-screen on Indeed or other job board sites with a short series of questions (which, for the record, I also find superfluous).
But if they ask you to download a separate app to communicate in the name of “security” and don’t set up a face to face call?
Don’t walk. Run.
Here you’ll see more wonky English, strange requests that sound more demanding than normal (because they don’t translate very well from the source language) and an insistence that communication only be done through this forum. It’s all bad and fake af.
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩#5–If it feels too good to be true…
it is. I’m sorry, babes.
Check the salary and the benefits, I beg. If you listen to nothing else I’ve said in this blog post (that I’m 100% not going to use in my spec work), LISTEN TO THIS! If the job post or scamming recruiters lists a bunch of things that sound like they could change your life overnight, take that as a sign that you have a fake on your hands. An insane salary, Apple equipment for a WFH set up, more than 6 weeks of paid training at just slightly less than the salary rate should have your brain a-storming. If you’re new to the industry, have been unemployed for a considerable amount of time or have just recently graduated and you find yourself being offered a 6 figure salary, let's take a break before we move forward.
Pity party for one, from 7pm to 7:05pm. BYOB.
I don’t want to make cynics out of ANYONE because things are cynical enough, so please consider this red flag with the others before you start doubting yourself and your abilities. These people running these scams are the lowest of the low, and they have no scruples whatsoever. They don’t care about how damaging this will be to you emotionally. Their endgame is to get your bank information, either through direct deposit forms or fraudulent checks for fake equipment, and steal whatever they can. They are preying on your genuine desire to improve your personal and professional life by dangling an opportunity to make more money than ever before.
Don’t take the bait, honey. Block and report. If you can get in touch with the company that is being impersonated to alert them, please do.
And then get back out there with this knowledge and try again. Your time will come.