Not so "Good Grief"

Did you know that there are hiring scams occurring through the job listings on LinkedIn? Until recently, having very nearly fallen victim, I was not and so I am sharing my recent experience with you so that you might recognize this in your own employment seeking journey much soon than I. Okay so.. I was super excited to hear back regarding an application I had put forth for a job I thought was @Virta Health. Not only did the position fit my experience, the company is working in a field that highly interests and applies to my experience. Anyway, I was instructed to install RingCentral for the interview. I was then told that the interview would be through the messaging system. Which I admit I thought was a bit odd but it was a remote position that relied heavily on typing skill and so I figured that this (and the bot that they seemed to employ for the task) was a way in which they could better assess my abilities. The next day I was offered a job and emailed an offer. At this point I was getting a little more wary of the situation as their grammar skills were poor and other signs that this was not the level of professional I would expect from my research about the company... signature lines missing. Lack of proper (beginning of sentence) capitalization and the like. But in my excitement I downplayed these alarm bells and signed away. There was a provision in the contract that they would be providing me the funds to purchase the equipment needed to do the job. There in is the rub. When I received the check , I stopped hard in my tracks and decided to do a little more research and went to the careers page of Virta's website. There is a warning there about this sort of scam and indicated ways to recognize it. They indicate that they do not do interviews over text. Another point they refer to is the email addresses used to contact me do not match the only extension the company uses.

What is the point of the scam? Once the check is deposited, they ask you to take a pic of the deposit slip to verify that you have done it. They say its another test to see how well you follow directions so that you can be best placed with the right team. The check is not real and will generally take a week or so before that is figured out. I'm not sure whether they are trying to get your bank account info from the picture so they can then drain it or scam you by asking you to then purchase x,y and z equipment from a specific vender and then you send your own real money out to that company and then they all disappear. Or perhaps it goes another way. Regardless, these criminals are out there prowling around ready to take advantage of anyone who is naïve enough (or excited enough) to fall for it. And their level of sophistication is not to be underestimated. Heck they took me for quite a ride before I fully recognized that I was even in the passenger seat. Word to the wise: Always take heed, be wary & do your due diligence.