Action 9: Woman thought she’d landed job, loses nearly $9,000

CHARLOTTE — Rissa Blackwell is a working artist and was looking for other ways to make money, so she went to the job search site Indeed.

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She said a company called Wipro Limited offered her a job inputting data and she accepted the position.

"I was super excited that I had finally landed something, so it was the initial joy of, ‘Oh, my goodness, I finally found a job. They're paying really well,’" she told Action 9's Jason Stoogenke.

She said the employer sent her checks, then had her deposit them in her bank account.

She was then told to use her money to buy gift cards for supplies and had her give the employer numbers off the back of the cards.

She didn’t know immediately that the employer's checks were fake.

Blackwell realized it was a scam, but by the time she caught on to it, she said she lost around $8,600.

"I felt really dumb at the time. I couldn’t believe that I had even let somebody allow access to me to even do something like that," Blackwell said. "I just would hate for that to happen to anybody else."

Blackwell said she told police and her bank about the scam, but she most likely will not see any reimbursement for her lost funds.

Indeed mentions scams on its website and that it vets employers to weed out the scammers.

Wipro is a legitimate company and said on its website that scammers use its name often.

There is a warning on its website that reads: "We receive a number of complaints from candidates who are offered employment at Wipro that require payment of cash deposit into specified bank accounts. These are fake job offers. All Wipro mails to candidates have a clear warning against payment of cash for securing jobs at Wipro. At Wipro, Integrity is of utmost importance and Wipro does not entertain payment of any kind from candidates for employment."

It lists common attributes of fake job offer emails:

Scammers use public email IDs
They claim to come from Wipro Group of Industries Limited or another nonexistent organization but claim to carry the name Wipro
They ask for cash deposit into a designated bank account.
To make the offer seems authentic, the email will call for submission of qualification documents, experience certificate, photographs, etc.
The emails will contain numerous apparent grammar and spelling errors
90% of the emails call the aspirant for an interview from Delhi, Noida or Gurgaon
Often, the contact address and phone numbers given in the email are nonexistent and false

Stoogenke said if someone sends you a check to deposit in your own account and then wants you to use your own money to pay a vendor that chances are, it’s a scam.