CONCORD, N.C. — With prices going up for items such as gas, food and rent, many people are searching for ways to make extra money on the side. But a Concord woman has a warning for job seekers after she was scammed out of thousands.
Shalisha Lee says she was diagnosed with a rare eye disease and lost her sight six years ago.
She said she couldn’t work, but then she got some vision back in one eye, so she decided to get back into the workforce. “I was filling out applications for work from home, remote positions, anything that wouldn’t require me to have to commute because I don’t drive anymore,” Lee said.
Lee says she posted her resume on the popular job website, Indeed.com, and that a company responded, or so it seemed. “I thought I did all my homework. I looked up the company, I made phone calls, I researched them,” she said. “I did everything I thought I was supposed to do to not have something happen like this.”
“You see a job that has the potential to change your life, to change your tax bracket, to be something life-changing, you’re going to want to pursue that,” she told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke.
Lee says the so-called employer sent her a letter, offering her the position of a data entry representative that would pay her $74,000.
Then, like a lot of these scams, the person sent her a check, told her to deposit it in her account, and told her to use the money to pay several vendors.
Lee told Stoogenke that the scammer’s check was fake, but her money was real and probably went right back to the scammer. Lee says she lost $4,800 and she gave the scammers her Social Security Number.
She really wants to warn others.
Stoogenke contacted Indeed. In the past, the company has said it has “a dedicated search quality team who goes to extraordinary lengths deploying a variety of techniques to assess the suitability and validity of job listings. Indeed removes tens of millions of job listings each month that do not meet our quality guidelines. In addition, Indeed will not do business with an employer if their job listings do not pass our stringent quality guidelines.”
Advice from Action 9:
- Research the employer. A web search can return posted warnings from others about the business.
- Be suspicious if the employer expects you to use your personal bank account for work. This was a red flag in this case.
- Watch out if someone sends you money then asks you to deposit it and send some of it to someone else.
(WATCH BELOW: How common Zelle scam works so you can avoid it)
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