ORLANDO, Fla. – With more and more Americans being laid off, more people are looking for jobs.
Fake job offers are increasing, and a local man shares his story about falling victim to a sophisticated job scheme promising high pay but delivering nothing.
Chris Goston said he posted his resume and applied for jobs on Indeed when he received an email from a company called Ridgeline Express asking him to interview.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary in the hiring process,” Goston said.
He interviewed with two people and was offered a job delivering packages.
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He was sent a 23-page employment contract that promised a salary of at least $4,300 a month and a one-month probationary period without pay.
Goston started working immediately.
“It went from trinkets to a cell phone, to a laptop, to like a $5,000 pool cleaner. It was so many packages I picked up,” he said. “I had at least three or four supervisors that would call me like six times a day. And when I had to drop off a package, they called me at least ten times a day.”
After 30 days, the website he logged into was shut down, and every phone number disconnected.
“All these things that I did for them, and I didn’t get compensated for any of them,” Goston said.
Goston is not alone.
Ridgeline Express has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB has also issued an alert saying, “consumers have reported doing work for the company but have not received payment.”
Jon Clay is vice president of Threat Intelligence with cybersecurity firm Trend Micro.
“It’s quite prevalent right now,” Clay said. “A lot of people are losing their jobs, unfortunately, and getting laid off and so there’s a lot of opportunity for scammers to take advantage of that, and they’re doing that,” he said.
Their apps for mobile devices catch constant text messages with fake job offers, he said.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Floridians lost nearly $9.5 million to job scams last year alone.
The FTC recommends searching the company name online with the words “scam” or “complaint” and warns that if a company asks you for money, that should be a red flag.
Never agree to send or receive money for an employer. This includes wire transfers or cashing checks. It’s a common scam.
Indeed sent News 6 a statement.
“Indeed puts job seekers at the heart of everything we do. We have 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,” the email states.
The company also encourages all job seekers to review their Guidelines for a Safe Job Search by clicking here.
Meanwhile, Goston is waiting to see what else could happen because during the interview process, he gave the crooks his driver’s license and Social Security number.
“So not only did they scam me out of my time and money. They have the potential to scam me out of more money,” he said.
If you believe you have been the victim of a scam or want to share your story, contact Louis Bolden at lbolden@wkmq.com.