Scam Victim Story: Desperately Seeking Employment
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ย. 2021
- This is the true story of a young adult person going through some difficult life circumstances who fell victim to a employment scam that might seem quite blatant and obvious. How is that even possible? Let's see what we can learn...
If you want to help H directly, here's the GoFundMe (no pressure or begging from either me or H - this is provided only because I know some people would otherwise ask for it):
gofund.me/037b5036
(of course, I am aware that, at H's decision, the GoFundMe details break the anonymity I have preserved in the video - I just decided to keep it as the format for this series)
More information on fake check (cheque) scams:
www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/202...
takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/adv... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![[TH] 2024 PMSL SEA W2D5 | Summer | วันอาทิตย์ จะขิตหรือจะรอด!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-4JLNwQRK-Y/mqdefault.jpg)
*Afterthoughts & Addenda*
*Additional 'advice for past self' from H* - when I summarised the response to this question, I overlooked an important piece: *get a second opinion* - when dealing with large and/or new financial transactions, talk to a trusted friend about what's happening. Scammers often try to insist the transaction must be done fast, or kept secret, because they know that if people beside the victim get to know about it, the scam will fail. Talk it through with someone you already know you can trust before you send money to anyone new.
*Check/cheque* - UK/USA. Just to say I am aware of this difference. In a written conversation, I will often use the USA spelling if the other party has already used it, just to keep things simple.
*Why do I keep labouring the 'no blame' thing?* - I suppose my point is; there are two ways to react to a story like this:
a) *_Self-congratulation:_* "Oh, that's obvious to me. I am very smart, you see." - You feel like you got smarter, but that feeling is an illusion.
b) *_Self-examination:_* "OK, that does seem obvious to me, so how on earth did this person fall for it? Is there any way in which I am being similarly oblivious to things obvious to others? How would I know if I am ignorant of something? What can I do about that?" - You have a chance to *get* smarter, which is actually useful.
Why this say a day ago?
@@merc2210 the video was probably uploaded unlisted, then scheduled to release publicly
Hope you don't mind, but I have a bad habit of thumbing up every comment in the comments section.
The purpose was not to mock the individual but it surely was a symptom of mine following your analysis 🤣
Wow, a new low to scam people looking for jobs! But the advice about getting a second opinion is great. Personally, I've asked my mum to always ask me before she does anything with e-mails with links in them. I've told her never to click links in e-mails or texts, but some are obviously legit, and I like that she run them by me first. :)
I found this perfectly credible up until the iTunes cards got busted out. Apple does not accept them as payments for their hardware products - they’re for the iTunes Store. Has to be said though, that’s a very well crafted scam. If I didn’t know iTunes cards were commonly used for scams (which I didn’t before I started watching this channel) and that iTunes cards are not accepted as payments for Apple’s hardware, I might’ve fallen for this myself.
Then again, in my country, checks aren’t used anymore for this and many other reasons. Perhaps it is for the best.
Granted, that too.
In the US there isn’t any difference between an iTunes (apps and games) and an apple store (hardware products) card anymore. I’m not sure about other regions though.
@@zacharycoleman1117 where i live, iTunes cards and Apple Store cards are still two different things
ITunes cards where I am can be used for the actual apple store , they changed it from two different cards a couple years ago. But I do agree it would be very weird for an employer to ask for a gift card haha
In Canada they recently released new Apple cards that can be used for anything on Apple's online store, including hardware.
Mike, I am quick to chime in if I think someone was completely dumb and naive when it comes to falling for a scam so I think it's totally fair that I say, there is a good chance that I would fall for this and can fully understand the mistakes that were made!
If gift cards are involved in a transactional context it's a scam 100% of the time.
@@malygos472 That's how Airtm works and its not a scam. I think. Cashiers purchase with balance the Amazon gift cards to clean it (if it was stolen).
@@malygos472 false. There are select cases were it's not. But that's like 6% of the time I'd say.
@Tristan Lane That won't necessarily help. The way banks work in the modern era, you will get credit for a deposit you make usually the day after you deposit, if not the same day. You could wait a few days, but you won't know if the check has actually cleared the issuing financial institution. Your bank won't even know unless they get a return notice from the issuing bank. This sort of notice can come in up to TWO WEEKS after the initial deposit, and in some rare situations even longer.
Honestly I was almost roped into one last summer, when the unemployment benefits were running out . Luckily, the phone call only lasted two minutes. They asked for the last four of my social, which I impulsively provided, but then I realized what was going on and hung up. Not sure if I would’ve caught on if I didn’t watch so much content about scammers.
To be honest, this scam actually seems quite plausible, and for someone in this situation, desperation and a need to find a new source of income quickly is going to dull critical thinking. Its easy to say "just be careful" but when you've lost your job and you're previous employer is unlikely to give you any pay, you're not thinking like that, particularly if you also have a family to feed as well.
Yeah, I think the biggest red flag is the gift card request. The rest of the scam just looks like it's a poorly organized company.
@@prairiepanda Friendly-but-random-reminder:
If any one single thing can be called 'The Tool of Humankind' it is Science, duh.
So why not watch some cool sci-channel?
Or at least science-inspired, like 'Sci Man Dan', who is mostly about Humor
and making people laugh by debunking Flat-Earth and Atlantis and 5G-Hate?
@@loturzelrestaurant so he isn't a scientist. He's not creating any hypothesis on his own, just finding the stupidest ones by others and debunking them. That's not a hard task, nor does it make him look interesting
@@st20332
Your comment is kinda weird, even if we ignore your oddly-hostile undertone, as if you knew that youtuber personally and he owes you money or somethin'.
Even so, your suggestion that science-youtuber have to be scientists is... plain wrong? And does not add-up with reality? Countless science-youtuber are not published scientists, so your idea that they have to be is what we call 'headcanon'?
I mean, if he legit doesnt look interesting to you, thats totally fine; thats not what i talk about here, duh; but your comment just strikes one as odd.
@@loturzelrestaurant why are you obsessed with advertising this guy, and defending him, clearly shows you’re just using a second account to advertise yourself.
Also, I didn’t say someone has to be a published scientist to be a scientist, but I definitely do think that by sticking to debunking conspiracy theories which have literally already all been debunked a thousand times, and by not focusing your ‘scientific mind’ onto creating something useful, instead of using it to big up your own ego by feeling you’ve ‘really DeBUnkEd all of those iDDIOOTS!!’ Clearly shows you aren’t a scientist, and just someone who wants to monetarily gain by not doing actual science, but by jumping on trendy words you know people are continually searching.
If you were a real scientist, you wouldn’t be wasting time pretending to be someone else, and advertising yourself in TH-cam comments. You’d be engaging your brain in whatever it is you’re interested in.
Weirdo
List of reasons Shrimp and his channel deserve to be protected
1. Educational and entertaining content
2. Genuinely human and kind
3. Willing to experiment and admit faults
4. Supports people and channels
Mr. Shrimp 🦐👏
In short. We Stan this King
He's really just such a great guy, an international treasure really
It will be a sad day when his death falls upon us but have that day be far far away
Why would it need protection?? :P
Sadly he missed the biggest, brightest, red flag of them all. No honest business will demand gift cards as the only accepted form of payment.
So true. On the most part of the scam was well thought out. The gift card part bit was suspect
That was the thing that immediately made me rise an eye brow
That's not a red flag for an honest business, it's a red flag for an illegal business. After all, there are honest illegal businesses making use of gift cards.
@@queerlibtardhippie9357 If your local crack dealer wants gift cards knock yourself out. At least you will get something for your money. You should still be leery about businesses that claim to be legit asking for Google Play cards.
And why would any employer want to do your interview via text chat on Telegram? That's definitely a big tell for me. Additionally, the job ad has errors in it. Also, the last straw was a check and then send some of it back? 🤦
I remember almost falling for one of these. I was in a similar situation as H - I was furloughed from waitressing, desperately trying to find something, and applied to an Indeed data entry job. Thankfully, I was in the same room as my mother when they messaged me about the "check." I said aloud, "Is that a real thing?". She's the best, because she snapped me out of my excitement of having a job and reminded me of all the things I should've known from finance classes. I was lucky, and also, my mom is far smarter than I.
Edit: I also 100% think the same bastard sold my phone number for phishing attempts, because I get texts nearly everyday. So yknow, grifters gonna grift, scammers gonna scam. (And, somewhat ironically, I'm now working in banking, in the fraud department.)
I agree, telling someone about it is a good idea. If I am excited and babble on about it, I naturally bring up any dodgy parts as they spring readily to mind.
@@anti-ethniccleansing465 Maybe somebody sold information on possible scam victims, but just made up the numbers and names. I mean, what are they gonna do about it? Sue the seller?
I had a very similar experience as well actually! I almost fell for one of those scams too. I was excited about having a job, so I went to talk to my mom about it. She was very skeptical, and pointed out a lot of things that didn't make sense. She snapped me out of it. Good thing she did.
damn, in the end, she became the scam artist... Well done!
I very recently applied to a couple of these and they never even responded, justw wanted my number for phishing it seems
I have to admit, this was a hard one. The spelling and grammar was good, the employer asked real questions you'd see in an interview, and the job post was written well. That being said, the kicker is the requirement of having to buy your own equipment instead of them getting it somehow to you as Atomic Shrimp mentioned. Great video, here's hoping H gets a good job soon.
The spelling & grammar was bad (I paused the video to read it), but not SO bad to be immediately obvious / concerning.
That's exactly where my alarm bells went off.
An honest employer will offer you the job, then (at least in the USA) send links to what seems like thousands of e-sign documents for you to read and sign, BEFORE your first day on the job. Then, once everything is signed, they ship you the equipment, probably making you sign even more forms acknowledging "equipment XYZ with serial numbers 123 ... is property of Company and I agree to return it in good condition ..."
And the reimbursement coming the next day - that never happens.
I got interviewed by one of these sketchy people - tried to make me buy a "home office" for like... $300. Fuck that.
Job ads and communication that talk down to you (Do you understand? Is that clear?) Are scams. It's 🚩 central. I'm not sure why a lot of people don't know that or can't see that, but its blatantly obvious to me... Wish it were that obvious go others in order to avoid such a scam.
I recently did a session about scams with my class, and am intending to do more during the course of the year. This stuff NEEDS to be taught in schools.
And nursing homes as well.
@@MR-kt2zv well hopefully if they're in a nursing home the workers would be able to do something
No need to teach that in school. Teaching critical thinking will do the job while also taking care of flat earthers, antivax, cults and other conspiracy theories.
@@cedric7751 We have all of those things even with critical thinking being a part of school curriculum, so I'm betting you're probably wrong.
@@kiyokumabear If taught properly, critical thinking should be almost fail proof.
When you provide evidence and sources to someone and that person dismiss/ignores them just because it does not align with their beliefs, you know that they are not applying the rules of critical thinking.
Being taught about it is not enough, it should be taught until it becomes a second nature to everyone to use it so that when someone see an ad for a new miracle weight loss pill, they don't rush to click on the "buy now" button.
I'm an engineer and if I were in dire need of a job like H, I probably would have fallen for this, too. Like you say, it's much more about circumstances and mental state than intelligence.
The most important message to get from ANY of Atomic Shrimp's Scam videos is:
YOU ARE NOT INVULNERABLE TO SCAMS!
Somewhere out there someone is already working on a scam that will be attacking one of your blind spots. Every human has blind spots, and if you feel invulnerable to being scammed, probability of you being scammed will rise ever so slightly. So don't get cocky, stay vigilant and never look down on people who fell for a scam. Listen to their stories and learn from their oversights.
True!
Absolutely yes. It's very easy to look at someone else's blind spot and conclude they were just stupid. It's very much harder to know about blind spots of our own. The key thing I want people to take away from this is the idea: "Could that be me, only with something else?".
It's OK if, after an exhaustive search, it turns out you had no blind spots at all. It's not a great idea to call off the search simply because you think others' blind spots are obvious.
Amen alameachan! As I said in my post: There is a scam tailor made for each and every one of us.
I think Jim Browning made that point pretty convincingly. Sadly. That's why it makes no sense to mock anyone for it. :)
That guy AI is hard at work.
This is a really nice and fair analysis. It’s a shame that so many people are affected by horrible people like these scammers, and that hope and desperation is exploited like this. Thank you for keeping all of this in the public eye, Atomic Shrimp. It’s a due service.
This is entirely unrelated to what you said, but like your profile picture.
It's good to see you back into posting scam awareness videos. You've got me hooked on the Baiting. I can't judge H for this. If I didn't know any better, I could have just as well fell for the scam myself . Alas *_there is scam tailor made for each and every one of us to fall for if we let our guard down._*
AI will help with this.
@@worldchangingvideos6253 And who is going to help us when AI decides to become the scammer?
@@BobbyCarbonKJV But Who else than AI, of course
@@PandemoniumMeltDown unknown. I was going to call you Pandemonium Meow Meow; for the thought of a hundred house cats blitzing around as a storm of fur and tails in their wake is a site to behold.
@@BobbyCarbonKJV Indeed, a force to be rekoned with!
th-cam.com/video/bHE9qV0VvBo/w-d-xo.html
I think for me, the biggest red flag of this situation is doing an interview over text, never once even seeing your employer. If someone wants to keep themselves hidden from me, they're probably up to no good.
A great example for why you shouldn't insult scam victims and claim they're stupid for falling for a scam and that anybody could fall for a scam would be the situation with Jim Browning not long ago. He's one of the brightest people when it comes to scammers and does so much content where he takes down sers, but he fell for a scam that led to him temporarily losing his TH-cam channel. Scammers are like the people who claim to speak to the dead, they rely on coincidences of timing and just the chance you may have let your guard down for 5 minutes to be able to get you. The most I can say for people who fall victim to scammers is that I hope that things improve for them soon and that it's not their fault that this happened.
Yes, scammers defo take advantage of coincidences. For example, I recently received a scam email saying "your package is being held at customs". I may have clicked on the link, if not for the fact that I had moments earlier, received the package from overseas that I was waiting for.
@@siennamay3281 I had a fake Royal Mail text an hour after sending something through Royal Mail (they had my phone number). The only reason I knew it was a scam was due to the number the text came from and the link.
I have shared this story before but the one time I was scammed was at one of the lowest points in my life. I was looking for housing after being homeless. Someone took advantage of me and yeah there were alarm bells that I can see in retrospect but at the time I didn't because I needed and wanted a place to live.
This right here. People that fall for these scams aren’t “dumb” or “gullible”, they’re ordinary people in incredibly inadvantageous situations.
Can you elaborate? I was mistaken for homeless and almost involved in human trafficking I think
How cruel must one be to steal from a homeless person :/
IWhen I was homeless just a couple day stay turned into working 40 hours a week watching 3 young kids cooking and cleaning and then turning over my measley money because everyone has to pay rent. While being berated for not cleaning around their house with me hardly having anything to do with the mess, while disabled.
Straight up said I'd rather be homeless and hoped tf out.
Reminds me of the time I went in for a 'job interview' which consisted of a skeevy looking guy, younger than I was, trying to play up the importance of buying some kind of item or service prior to employment. There was another person in the interview, but I suspect he was a patsy. Smelled a scam, alerted the authorities, and I guarantee nothing happened, but at least my intense poverty at the time protected me, because I literally couldn't buy the thing being sold!
Poverty saved me from a scam once too. At least, I think it was a scam - I'm honestly still not sure, since I don't know what's normal in this industry! I sometimes think I want to try to get into acting, and several years ago I applied for an audition at an agency via a Kijiji ad. I don't know anything about this industry, but the agency seemed kosher to me. I bussed into Toronto, arrived at their office, was greeted by a very friendly woman, was given a short ad blurb that I would read for my audition, and once the other auditioners had arrived, we all read our blurbs according to instructions, while the woman filmed. Afterwards we were each called into her office one by one to find out whether they were interested in working with us. She gave me high praise, said they were definitely interested. Then she said the next step was to go through some of their courses, at my own expense, which at minimum would cost upwards of $1,000. The bubble popped. I wasn't 100% sure it was a scam, but all my alarm bells were ringing, and in any case I simply couldn't afford it. I thanked her and got the hell out of there. I still wonder to this day if that's normal, but I'm afraid to ask anyone who might know, and I don't think I'd welcome either answer anyway.
Wow this example is an eye opener. I would've never thought there are scammers scamming on Indeed... scary world 😨 Thank you and H for sharing the story and raising awareness!
Indeed, I tell myself not to get puffed up and arrogant. If I'm not careful, one of these days a scammer might have me in their cross hairs. And I hope that I will be wise enough to know they are trying to scam me.
Indeed they are
When you're desperate for work, you try anything.
I did 2 weeks door to door work trying to sell direct debit donations for an international environmental charity.
in the dozen 12 hour shifts I worked, I made for myself a grand total of around £35, after signing up only 2 people.
We were told to lie and guilt trip people, to pray on vulnerable elderly people and women who were home alone, to intimidate them into signing up.
disgusting.
And if you do sign up to a charity, they will hound you into the grave for more money. Never donate to charity
This flavor of scam is really common in the art industry. With "companies" approaching artists on portfolio websites with job requests. Typically targeting animators, concept artists and modelers/riggers. It'll seem mostly legit until they ask you to obtain a separate work computer and specific programs with your own money or "company" money.
Just in the past year I've seen at least five people share warnings about this sort of thing on social media, a few them industry veterans.
As someone who's never handled a check, and who's nearest physical bank office is at least 40 min commuting distance away... I'm not sure if I would have been able to see through that specific bit of the scam, if everything else about the offer would have seemed to add up. I strongly suspect that a lot of people who are in their mid 30's, or are younger than that, have simply never had to deal with the inconvenience of checks in their entire lives, and mostly know about them from TV.
Also, I've had jobs where I've had to procure things on my own. Not something as major as a computer, but still stuff, and currently I'm working from home using my own personal computer and if it would break I would have to replace it myself. So that part does not seem "that" unlikely either to me.
The only things that immediately raises alarm bells for me here are the gift cards, and even then, the context here almost makes sense.
So this has to be one of the, what I feel at least, more believable scams, and even though I consider myself relatively well educated when it comes to the world of scams, and tech in general, this is one I think I could realistically fall for if circumstances were to align.
Cheque, though.. in proper English 🙃😊
Paychecks are given as physical paper checks in my area. I went to work in a city for awhile and I was talking to the regional manager for that area and they don’t even give employees the option for paper checks anymore. They assume everyone wants direct deposit. So... I can see how people in more “modern”/populated areas never see a physical check. I live in a rural area and even the family owned gas stations will cash paper checks here still. Lol
@@TsunauticusIV Might also be just a general regional/country thing. I'm from Sweden, and I don't know if physical checks were ever a big thing around these parts. They existed (I know that much from seeing re-runs of old 80's TV-shows), but I don't if they've really been a "thing" that's has been big in my lifetime at least. When I got my first job as a paperboy in the late 90's direct deposit was the only option available.
for some reason cheques are still a thing in america. i havent seen one here in australia since i was a kid back in the 80s
@@ollieb9875 it duhsnt realie mater whats proper english if u can reed it just fine
I greatly appreciate your use of the term saber-tooth cats, as opposed to the more common but incorrect saber-tooth tigers
They'll always be tigers in my heart.
I refuse to deal with gift cards, it seems today that gift cards are central for so many scams so I've programmed myself to not touch them. I'd rather use my credit card then at least I have my bank in my corner for if things go wrong.
I have a lot of respect for the active effort to keep a state of mind which does not assume other people are stupid or inferior. The world is a better place when we challenge those beliefs of superiority, and instead look for the details and explanations
Compassion and taking the time to understand behaviors are indeed beautiful traits. Some humans aren't "engineered" this way, regard these "options" as weaknesses or a blatant waste of time. I value these mods and maintain them.
Goodness me, poor H. Will certainly be passing this information to my friend who's on benefits and has to use indeed pretty frequently. Thank you. 🏴
🏴 I'm from Wales too!
@@pyroxide8442 all the best people are you know 👍🏴
@@elainesmith1200 indeed
There's gotta be a Special Hell for scammers who prey on the desperate and vulnerable.
My family and I have been tremendously fortunate to have survived this pandemic healthy and employed. So I'm paying it forward with a donation to H.
I'm doing it also to thank Atomic Shrimp for all the great content.
God bless you
Many of them are themselves desperate and vulnerable. I only wish there were options for them that weren't preying on others.
For those who have the options and CHOOSE to be scammers, I hope they rot in that special hell of yours.
Well, I'm sure there is not a scammer in the world who wouldn't love to scan a billionaire, but in reality it's the vulnerable and desperate who are by far the most likely to fall far the scams. Not that that would excuse their behaviour.
@UC-pfWPkixWOSxNx7uaeBiBw No, fuck them. If they have the money and resources to sit and scam all day rather rather getting a real job, they deserve what's coming to them. I doubt scamming even brings a lavish lifestyle because there's there's many firewalls and spam filters and more these days.
@@beckobert they deserve nothing but turmoil.
I had a friend who had her identity stolen after giving her information to what she thought were her new employers.
in retrospect, they offered her the job on the spot with no interview or prior contact and the job was supposedly in america which is not where we lived.
Luckily she recovered everything relatively quickly.
Another great "heads up" video Mike, and yes, I'm 53 when I was in school the was absolutely NO scam or "life due process" education in the curriculum. My early education began in the Midlands and I learnt how to operate a Canal Lock Gate, and my latter education was in Wales... So I'm proud to announce I can conduct the opening of a canal lock in Welsh!
"How really secure is that lock?" - The locksmith lawyer (I wish)
@@PandemoniumMeltDown Very few locks are safe from a trusty pair of bolt cutters.
When I was at school in the 1970s the maths class included lessons on finance and how mortgages work.
Note to all remote job searchers: a legit employer will never ask you to purchase things in order to work for them.
Not true. Supermarkets in Australia ask you to purchase your own shirts, plus generic black pants, but they'll only reimburse you after you've bought it and only one shirt per employee lifetime (so your polo has to last your entire working life, somehow they get away with this).
@@skullsaintdead he said *remote* job searchers. I doubt working in a supermarket is considered remote
yeah first thing i would do is search up the company
Some of them do @Jay Maverick as I know they're legitimate companies. They're upfront about it in the employment ad: you must supply your own computer with these specs and internet with these specs. Of course that's not a position I would apply for.
That's not true at all, though usually the equipment is for yourself and nothing is sent to anyone.
"It's obvious, right?"
Truth be told, I have *never* heard of this kind of scam before, so it shouldn't be considered "obvious", yaknow?
That's the point - it's obvious to people who know, and there's a human tendency to assume that what is obvious to oneself, should be obvious (or 'common sense') to everybody else.
Exactly. Every time I hear about a victim of a scam, I tell myself, "that could have been me."
Wasn't obvious for me either (which is a bit scary). And I think, looking for a job, you are just trying to follow what the possible employer says should be done, and less what you think of it.
I think I would give myself advice to cut the panic and take a look of the situation like it wasn't me in it.
@@AtomicShrimp Then again: what is common sense?
There is no such thing as a soul called common sense. In this age of individualism and isolation, common is becoming extinct.
thank you for this video, i am currently searching for my first full time job and had no idea that this was a type of scam that i might encounter
I actually fell for this scam before because unfortunately I wasn’t aware of it and it seemed legitimate at first so I did deposit the check into my account. However, once they said a few key words that were red flags I refused to send the money and the check bounced so I never actually lost any money but I almost did
You're lucky. Most of the time, when a check bounces, the money for the amount of the check is taken out of the account of the person who cashes it. For example, if someone has $5000 in their bank account and cashes a fake check guy $2000, their account will have $3000. I think it's stupid, but that's how it is.
@@sovietbot6708 no, that’s not the way it works. if you SPEND the money from the check then when it bounces your account will go negative because they take the money back. If you don’t spend it then it just takes the money back and you’re fine
@@sovietbot6708 what the fuck are you talking about.
@@sovietbot6708 That is not how it works. At most you may get an administrative charge from the bank for the invalid cheque, that may be around 50 dollars. The only way you would lose thousands is if you try to spend the money from the invalid cheque.
@@sovietbot6708 Is that what happened to you? You spent the money but are blaming it on a check that bounced? Lol.
I would have fallen for this up until the apple cards. I'm in my 20's and I have no idea how cheques work, completely unfamiliar to me, however I have a Pavlonian reaction to gift-cards that's been beat into me by hours of scan youtube watching
I really appreciate how respectful your videos are towards scam victims in general. I've only fallen for one scam in my life, but even then it's hard for me to think back on it without feeling completely stupid. Your videos have helped me realize, however slowly, that rather than feel ashamed I can learn from my experience and better identify future scams.
Damn, that sucks. I feel for H.
Trying to do the right thing and getting taken advantage of. I can see where I could have fallen for some of this - I'd like to think my alarm bells would go off with the apple cards but I am almost positive I would of gone through the whole interview etc myself without a second thought
Same. Asking for payment iTunes cards feels like the most telltale sign of scams these days, but who knows if I would've fallen victim to a sunk costs fallacy by point. Everything before that certainly would've flown under my radar. I'm glad shrimp brought awareness of this scam!
h
I have almost fallen for exactly this scam, as someone who was desperate for work I almost fell for it at the money stage. This was before I really learned about most scams and how to effectively spot them, only really being familiar with the old email scams. It is really true, when you have a lot of alarm bells ringing, it is very hard to recognize something that's too good to be true. Because at that stage, any good is tempting.
As much as i feel bad for the victims in these videos, i REALLY appreciate this content of yours, Shrimp. It's clean, high quality and not over-reliant on sponsors or annoying bits and pieces.
Can't wait for more of this, budget food challenges, foraging and all the other stuff you do. Like, the amount of times you have successfully encouraged me to just toy around with fresh ingredients and get experimental with food is amazing and i love it!
Cheers!
👏 Mr. Shrimp 🦐
How low is this human being to scam someone else when they're looking for a job to survive. Thanks for the video.
These scammers have no remorse or pity...there's no line they won't cross.
@@Cautionary_Tale_Harris Hence: they become fair game.
ya these scammers r a bunch of companies with lots of folks working 4 them.they have no morals,scruples etc & don't care who they hurt or wut they have 2 do 2 get as much $ as possible.they're disgusting lowlifes.:[
I recently had a family member almost fall victim to a scam. If I had not watched videos like yours or similar before, I'm not sure I would have caught on to it. The scenario seemed fairly plausible (except for a few details that seemed slightly odd), so when I talked with them it seemed fairly innocent. They were in an excited mindset about selling something on line they'd been wanting to get rid of for a while. It was only when I saw the email that it was obvious to me it was a scam. The weirdest part is since I'm not a native english speaker and the scammer spoke my language almost, perfectly with little to no grammatical errors, that helped give it a large bit of credibility.
Your videos made it a lot easier to understand their position and made it much easier to comfort them about the situation. You're making a huge difference to people out there :) If it had happened a few years ago I might not have been as understanding to their position.
Your English is basically perfect with a few minor mistakes (very minor). Impressive for a non native English speaker.
I went into a store recently and saw signs at the gift card section warning people about scams. Maybe more stores should have those.
I would only have know this was a scam because I’ve read about so many similar stories on Reddit. But my brother who has autism is very naive and falls for scams all the time. Scams really upset me. I saw a scammer on Instagram the other day advertising a “single parent special offer” and I couldn’t believe the depravity. Always kicking people when they’re already down
It really is a shame. I'm sorry to hear that people try to take advantage of your brother. Sending love!
So hard to decode intentions for him. I feel particularly triggered and sorry.
This are bad ways I feel for those that fell
My employer actually request that new employees go out and purchase their own laptop if they wish to work from home but won't reimburse them as they don't want to encourage staff to work from home. It's not a scam but thought I'd mention it.
I agree that scams and more financial stuff should be covered in school. Martin Lewis is slowly starting to change that but there's certainly room for improvement.
'It's not a scam' - I think it can be called one, in a certain way.
Its not a scam, *but*
The biggest red flag ever...then use your laptop to log into business networks and such? Big lol
I can understand he does not like people working from home. But by doing that, he's risking his own business. Many people do not have the money to buy licence software to work from home, and hackers can really make a mess or make a company lose money, customers and reputation. I'd would rather buy my employees all the necessary tools, instead of putting my business at risk.
So your employer allows foreign computers on the internal company network?
The apple gift cards would have been a big red flag but I still see how they could have fallen for it. Good video
Apple gift card is are obviously inferior to Steam gift card is.
@@ARandomSpace Indeed. Especially for us gamers.
I only accept Cracker Barrel gift cards due to my morbid obesity.
@@Cautionary_Tale_Harris Why did they fire Brad's wife!
@@PandemoniumMeltDown Damn fools she worked there for 11 YEARS!!!
Upon taking my most recent position as a remote software developer, I was actually required to perform many of the steps in this scam. I had online interviews, and was required to purchase my own hardware prior to starting work.
My employer reimbursed me for the cost of my new computer via direct deposit, and was not expecting me to send them funds / purchase hardware directly from them. So, in 1 or 2 ways, this scam deviated from the realities of IT remote work, but it was really not very far off.
I found this video to be informative - after about the 3rd reminder from you, I've finally opened up to the possibility that even someone as smart and cool as I am could be fooled by a clever enough scam when delivered at a difficult period in my life. Thanks for this
Everywhere I've ever worked that needed something operated under the idea of either they buy you set kit, or you get a budget to buy what you need and they do the purchasing.
Never really seen places just send cheques to new workers without even so much as a video call to confirm identity.
It's a shame H fell for it, if you're just so happy to get employment it can be really hard to think of them as scamming you, especially when they're doing things like agreeing to send money to pay for things in advance.
I wonder if banks being more clear about how cheques work would help, it's very weird that they let the money show up in your account before it clears, and they certainly shouldn't be letting you access it. For preauthorized payments on my card it shows as money in my account but not available, surely the same idea could be done for cheques?
i work at a bank and it is possible to do that and if other banks are like mine they'll do it in a heartbeat if anything tips them off its even vaguely related to potential fraud. The issue is there's very specific legal regulation in the US at least around making funds available for deposited items, and if nothing tips off the check as not being like every other check that's cleared perfectly fine before. Maybe they might be able to make it so that funds that aren't available as quickly but I can tell you 99.9%of customers being inconvenienced because of a potential scam that doesn't apply to their situation would create massive blow back and you'd get employees get cussed out all day long daily.
There's usually something in the account disclosures that goes over how check and general deposit funds availability works but no one reads anything about that stuff no matter how much you try to tell them there's very important stuff in there they need to know.
Here's two of the probably more relevant sections of that US law, id be surprised if other countries dont have a similar thing.
Section 229.10 Next-day availability
States that the regulation requires that cash deposits, wire transfers, and certain check deposits that Congress believes pose little risk to the depositary bank, such as Treasury checks and cashiers checks, generally be made available for withdrawal by the business day after the banking day of deposit.
Section 229.11 [Reserved]
Section 229.12 Availability schedule
States that proceeds of local and nonlocal checks must generally be made available for withdrawal by the second and fifth business day following deposit, respectively. A local check is a check deposited in a depositary bank that is located in the same Federal Reserve check-processing region as the paying bank, and a nonlocal check is one deposited in a different check-processing region than the paying bank. (There are no longer any non-local checks.)
I find it weird that the money is cleared immediately, in the UK you don’t get any money until it goes through clearing. Also, nobody uses cheques, we have had same day bank transfers for about 15 years
Donated, we can all get caught out and we need people to tell their story, without shame, to help others less fortunate. Good on you H, you'll be right.
This is one I might have fallen for myself at one point when I was looking for work. It was actually really well planned. I thought of your videos the other day because I had a moment of "click on the link". Ironically, I'm always the one warning friends and family about scams and bad links. This time I was tired after a long day working, saw a message from my aunt and just clicked it without thinking. As soon as I clicked I realised what I had done and back tracked. I had to 'clean' my phone, change passwords, update software etc, and then just keep an eye on things for a long time before I felt secure that I could safely use my phone again. It's as you say, anyone in the wrong frame of mind, at the wrong time, can fall really badly into one of these traps. Thank you for the video
I never even considered the idea that a job posting could be a scam. When I looked for jobs before, I did notice some strange postings that had no company names or were oddly vague, but the possibility of them being scammy never came to mind. It's definitely really good to know this!
Thought I was quite ‘scam’ savvy. But, in needing work myself and using platforms such as ‘indeed’ I, myself, could potentially fall for a scam like this. I think I wouldn’t fall for the payment but to get to that point would be plausible.
I feel bad for this poor bloke as finding work is NO easy task, and to think you have a new job just to be scammed; being out of money and to not even have a job is a real kick in the teeth. I hope H is able to recover from this as I’m sure it took a mental toll on him, and I know I would be very hesitant in applying for different jobs.
I work at a sixth form college (one not too distant from you, Mike 😊 ) - I've forwarded this video to the Careers Manager as I think awareness of this particularly evil type of scam needs to be raised, especially with young people looking for their first break in life.
Four minutes into the video and I'm touched by atomic shrimp's compassion and understanding. I wouldn't have seen it as a scam too if I were in H's position. Thanks for this.
👏 Mr Shrimp
I'm not sure whether or not "paying in apple cards" would have tipped me off before watching these videos, but I would never ever use my own money while waiting for the check to clear. If the check is FOR funding these items, that's what I'm going to use. They CAN'T force me to buy them sooner, regardless of "limited time deal" (which also would not be the case in a legitimate company), that insistence would be the red flag. At the same time, if I have to send them apple cards using the check they sent me, why the heck wouldn't they just buy the items directly? Flag #2.
The moment you mention cheque, I knew what you were talking about. As you said, if we are unaware of scams, the best thing to do is watch many of the youtubers that upload content about scaming. You, Browning and another creator whose content is really interesting is Pleasant Green YT channel. He addresses the most common scams for consumers. I learnt about the rejected cheque from his channel. Once again, thank you for the content! Wish all the best for H!
I don't think I'd trust someone that does interview by text instead of a video call. To me that was the biggest red flag.
Not all of it was by text, some of it was by phone.
The cards were also treated as a "last resort" several other methods that seemed legitimate were used with extreme difficulty up until then, it was the pressure to get everything done within a certain amount of time that allowed the cards to come into play.
Thankfully I know what to look out for, I have been hit by at least 6 other scam jobs on Indeed alone after this, it's been a real headache.
So the red flags should probably start when it comes to things like the check, a tight timeline, and the use of non-standard apps for businesses.
In any case I hope you never run into this in your lifetime but if you do I've got a good feeling you won't fall for it ^_^
Have a good one man.
Tbf fastfood companies and other places that get a lot of applicants do this because a bot can answer a lot of those first interview questions. So it's not necessarily a red flag that the interview is through text, maybe a yellow one 🤔
I was lucky enough to be warned of a similar scam by someone I was interviewing with while I was also interviewing at the scam company. The details were different (having me purchase some sort of book/license thing that I "legally" needed to have for their somehow being own boss while being their employee thing that was just a pyramid scheme), but it was really the same thing but in-person. Having good people around you definitely helps, especially when you're in dire straights or are looking for your first job.
@4:12 Not sure where I heard about it but I recall a sort of study done on the effects these kinds of worries have on the decision making abilities of folks and the results were very telling. The quick and simple breakdown was that the more worried about where you would get the money for food / transportation / health issues, the worse your capacity for critical thinking and problem solving becomes. Kind of puts the whole issue into a new perspective since it kind of seems like you cant rely on your own financial decisions once you get stuck in that loop of scrapping by from one paycheck to the next. This is why it is so important to ask friends or family that you trust and who don't share your situation for advice when confronted by these sorts of problems in life, no matter how silly or embarrassed you might feel about it.
Pleasant Green covered this scam. Suggestion: (1) discuss the job conditions with others and (2) *ALWAYS* wait until the cheque clears!
The scam works especially well in the US. Based on what I heard, the bank must release the hold within seven days, but it may take more than seven days for the bank to figure out that the cheque is fraudulent.
As an x-bank employee, I will tell you that it can take several weeks for a cheque to clear.
@@lovecats6856 in which part of the world does it take weeks? It's 5-7 working days where I am.
@@genemechanic6773 yes 5-7 days is the norm, however we had a few times when a cheque or money order came back as fraudulent a month later.
This rates up there as one of your best videos. The delivery and goodwill of the content was really excellent.
I almost fell victim to an employment scam about a decade ago myself...I found a listing for a security job on Craigslist and got an email reply that pressed for a quick response by saying they didn't have time to wait around. I even went so far as to enter my SSN and advance to the next page, but the flag for me was when they wanted me to pay for a third-party credit check. That caused me to take a step back and look at the "employer" whose website had pictures of big buildings but no details about anything (office location, property type, etc.). Fortunately it never ended up affecting me as far as I can tell, but if I were in this same situation at that point I could absolutely fall for this.
Honestly your comment about remembering to do things more securely instead of just rushing ahead for convenience really struck me. I've always valued security a bit, but very recently a friend of mine commented in some game or program how they were annoyed that they had to, "Enter the verification code every time [they] log in!!". I found it bizarre that such a short step that drastically increases security was considered a massive burden to them. That, in conjunction with your video, has helpfully reminded me that sometimes you should just be patience and okay with things taking longer, knowing you'll be more secure in the end.
... and always remember what kind of details one should never share with a stranger over the internet.
This scam actually shocked me. I think I would have fallen for this 100%. If it's listed on a job page like this I think I would have accepted. You might have saved me from a scam like this in the future. Thanks
I fell for a similar one once
The fact the person who cashes the check gets punished, not the person who made the fake check, pisses me off.
I spoke to the bank quite extensively about that, if the funds aren't tapped into after the deposit the check will bounce and usually will just leave a negative remark on your account.
Any funds that are "spent" without a direct verification (Pin for Signature aka Debit) can be disputed but that's also a length process that requires affidavit.
Any funds that are "spent" with any form of verification can not be contested, you're SOL and responsible for that expenditure no matter the circumstance.
Even if say a friend or family member goes out and buys a ton of things with your debit card you can't dispute those transactions because you "authorized them by giving them your pin."
TIL
Banks and the Scammers both need to be scrutinized, end of the day they both want *your* money.
@@HotWheels_OW Let's sue them for bridge of transaction agreement!
This is so tough :( I work in HR and a lot of unearned trust is required from the candidate in the recruitment/new hire process. Scammers preying on desperate job seekers are just the worst!!! Best of luck to H
I would absolutely have fallen for this scam, so no judgement on H at all. Quite the opposite. Thank you very much for this.
Well said. But you don't have to fall for it anymore because Atomic Shrimp just inoculated you against this scam.
@@BobbyCarbonKJV I hope I won't! Sadly I suspect that there are many there scams out there of which I know nothing - yet. I also have close family who I know are vulnerable to these kind of scams, so I try to keep them up to date too. I'm sure you do the same.
@@lidbass Yes indeed. It helps to bare in mind that nobody is perfectly unscammable. I said it twice and I'll say it again, *_There is a scam tailor made for each and everyone one of us to fall for._*
@@BobbyCarbonKJV "The Net is vast and infinite" - Major Motoko Kusanagi
@@PandemoniumMeltDown That's a big net. That net should be outlawed before them sailors snag every single fish from the sea.
With the way jobs are right now, everything is done online, yes even the interviews in a lot of cases, I can see how this happened. I wasn't fully aware of this scam either, appreciate this video.
It is very scary ; there are scams like this currently. It is a valuable lesson of always do your homework before clicking on a potential employer offer. It saves the perspective applicant the time and trouble of deciding if this position is right for them but also seeing from an objective eye ; does this job description make sense.
This almost happened to me. Desperate for a job after losing one and being unemployed for a month. I went through it all until the part they would send me the payment.....I was talking to my husband and just saying it out loud I couldn't get over how odd it was and why they were offering SO much per hour. I am glad I didn't go for it and I messaged the person "hiring" me and told him off for doing this to vulnerable people. He acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. SHAME!!! Feel awful for this young guy.
These videos are so helpful. Recently I ran up across a scam on Discord in a format I had never seen before, and it was thanks to these videos' reminders to always be suspicious when someone creates a sense of urgency to act that I spotted this scam about a step and a half earlier than I otherwise would.
I have never heard of the scam mentioned here (maybe because it has been a long time since cheques were a common thing here) but if I were to encounter something in a similar form I feel more prepared now, so that even IF I believe I would not be taken in, I would realize it earlier, which would lead to less time being disappointed.
I very much appreciate your handling of this situation and the way you've presented this video. It was incredibly kind and helpful of you, and I for one appreciate that. Too often we're so quick and ready to lay blame at the feet of the scammed and not where the blame really belongs, which is with the people who have setup conditions to be what they are. If they didn't make it so easy for the scammers, maybe things would be different.
As someone who works in IT, the industry can be very fast and loose about BYOD and device offerings. I can totally see how H fell for this and there have been times I would have fallen for it too. Donating to the gofundme now, could we have an update in a few weeks please Mike?
Once again thank you for pointing out not to be quick to throw blame on the victim. There are always extenuating circumstances on how someone becomes a victim in the first place. Secondly, pointing out the way you can help someone who has become a victim, even if it's only to protect your own family and friends by spreading awareness. It's free and easy. Especially around the holidays where you are likely to see these folks that you may have not seen for a long time.
Exactly. Spread awareness. Love and be compassionate.
I hope my reaction would be to question why the company couldn't order through the vendor themselves, but it's all too easy to feel like I would've had that reaction when I already have the hindsight that it was a scam. Plus, as you note in the video, desperation and challenging life circumstances cloud judgement and make one much easier to exploit, which is so tragic because it pushes things from bad to worse, so I really appreciate you coming from a compassionate angle and never a judgemental one (and I also agree with you that this angle offers more opportunity for introspection and learning).
Yeah, hindsight always makes things look simpler than they really were. In my last job, I had to order my own IT kit (for the most part because it was a management role in the IT department with responsibility for ordering in general), but I was ordering on account, from a desk, after induction into a workplace.
@@AtomicShrimp When I get blamed for my methods after the job is done, the gloves are off, the blamer becomes fair game. Never get upset at the tool, you can upgrade it, you can replace it, blaming it is blaming yourself.
Guilt is a most interesting fiend; looking down, it's easy to turn it into blame.
@@PandemoniumMeltDown I hope we are helping the Channel by thumbing up all the comments and making lots of comments ourselves. I heard that TH-cam algorithms are affected by the number of comments and thumbs up.
I'm glad he addressed the pachyderm in the parlor, because I was too focused on my teachings regarding saber-tooth cats.
Fund me goal was reached. Good work Shrimp, you are a good soul
I am from a country, where we don't use cheques. So this type of a scam never have been on my radar. Useful to know, thank you! I wish H all the best.
The key to avoiding scams is preparation.
Preparation, H.
I always love your uploads Mr. shrimp. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Mr Shrimp 🍤
@@worldchangingvideos6253 lol, I see what you're doing... But why does it make the Grinch song, to which I replaced Grinch with Shrimp, come to my head... I'll never know.
Damn it! Now it's gradually taking shape as a celebration of his paradoxically opposed generous personality as an hymn to criminal scumbags scammers impending doom, stealing all the colorful bling bling rewards from under their hard work x-scam tree.
Grim and joyful, just as it should be.
Tut tut tut-tut-tut-tut-tut tut tut, tut tut tut-tut-tut-tut-tut, Mr Shriiiiiimp.
I almost fell victim to the same scam and it was from an indeed listing too. I stopped using the job board sites mainly because I realized their real customers were either MLMs or scammers.
I have recommended your channel to my students many times, it's genuinely informative about these very serious and real scams, the more people know that these things happening is a possibility, the more chance there is that they'll be safe
Went through this exact same thing. Almost all of the stereotypical signs of a scam were not there at all. They even spoofed the email address and used the professional pictures of one of the companies HR managers. Luckily they didn’t get any money from me but they still had me completely convinced I was employed until I discovered this was a scam that was becoming increasingly prevalent. Getting scammed has definitely evolved from days of sketchy Nigerian Princes. I hope everyone stays safe and keeps themselves protected out there.
I'm so glad you have covered this. You are such a lovely human being.
Lovely indeed, jolly good show and most excellent chap, I say.
@@PandemoniumMeltDown Pandemonium Meow Meow hath struck again. Please be kind enough to inform your Tom Cat brethren to cease from spraying my furniture.
Heya shrimp, before you get uber famous I'll just throw out a quick thanks for incredible content and pursuit of interesting topics
I have been enjoying your videos for several years. you and the other scambaiters are really a great service to everyone . I have learned alot. Through your videos I have learned what to look for and what the red flags are . Not only are you entertaining you are providing very helpful information to all . Thankyou so much Atomic Shrimp
I really appreciate how much you stress empathy and not judging or blaming victims! Thanks for another easily understandable and detailed video!
All one needs to do is to learn that Jim Browning got scammed and they might feel less smug about how scam-proof they are.
This is the second most insidious scam I have seen thus far. One of only 3 where I fully believe I would have been fooled until a month after. Others, I have a chance or ten to catch myself in the middle of. But not this one. Thank you very much
3:32 As someone who thinks basic statistics should be taught at the tail end of primary school (or at least how to properly scrutinize news) I feel your pain
6:23 Can't say for my friends, but my family sure is. I have seen my father pick apart a scam at the seams multiple times and then explain to me why it was obvious to him immediately after. And that's after I stopped talking about scams for years. Might need to work on friends tho
I am someone who has fallen victim to this specific rubber check scam as well. For the exact same job and position. I was desperate trying to get out of my current job, which had been cut from full time to part time. I consider myself to be savvy and smart when it comes to seeing through bull like this.
However, at the time, I was desperate and reaching for anything I could get my hands on. Which I why I fell for this so easily. I fell for it up until the request to transfer money. I called my bank, called the company they were impersonating and reported it to the FBI. Luckily, no money was lost on my end.
I love your approach to education about scams, and it's something that I think is applicable in all areas of life. If someone doesn't know something or can't do something, it's probably because they never learnt, not because there's some fundamental flaw with them. I really appreciate that you make this so explicit in your scam victim videos.
Flaw XD cute. Indeed. It's easy to blame the media for the medium. Yet with education, most filters can be updated. Humans can be resilient to change, even if it'd be preferable, sometimes conditioning "flawed" them as an involuntary result from obsolete "education", some "flaws" can be harder to correct than other. I find it's a question of patience and a genuine desire to help that will correct hard issues, in the case of loved ones: love...
"only love can kill the demon" - NBK.
th-cam.com/video/XOV8arrHZsY/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for making this video,,i think when people watch/hear of these types of scams thy think what ah idiot or dumbass to fall for that,.but i actually know someone who fell for almost the exact scam and that was around 15yrs ago,and he was not dumb at all,i think his check was for little over $5thousand,and he spent all of it before the bank telling him it was a bad check.. Amd then my elderly aunt fell for a different type of scam recently,it was horrible timing since i was just starting to watch scam baiting videos,and was telling my mom to be careful due to scams,and thats when i found out my aunt had just lost afew thousand to 1..but now after watching these type of videos EVERYONE i know has at some point had a conversation about what to look out for,soo i appreciate all these guys doing a amazing job at raising awareness to these scammers👍🙂👍
Thanks for your great videos Shrimp!
It is difficult to get out of that mindset of; "How could this person fall for this, especially in this day and age with all the information about scams out there? A 27 year old would typically be a little more savvy on the internet that they should be aware of this stuff." It is so easy to think they should know because we know. Makes me think of the old saying "Why don't you know my uncle when I know him so well?" and "We don't know what we don't know." It really depends what we pay attention to and what we spend our time doing. The thought that there may be things any of us could be falling prey to with complete ignorance is scary! Thanks for this video and showing us how this can happen and teaching us not to judge, but to help others by making this a conversation in our own little circles.
Thank you for easing awareness. A lot of people are leaving their old jobs in hopes of new opportunities. They are calling it the great resignation. Hopefully more and more people spread scam awareness.
I almost fell for a rubber check scam many years ago (when they were first starting to gain traction). I didn't find running around to get gift cards as an alarming thing because as i said it just started. However, he told me to deposit the check in an ATM NOT going inside to an actual person. Well luckily for me, i was an idiot and didn't know how to deposit a check via ATM so i had to go inside lmao. The bank tellers asked where i got the check from, i told them it was from an 'online friend', they looked into it and realized it wasn't a real check (I guess they have a system or something where they can see scans of checks from other companies (Unless google does this idk but it wouldn't surprise me if banks have check databases)
If you read "catch me if you can" (nope, the movie won "cut" it, pun intended) you'll see the main reason of his success was that he, very early on, understood the way checks work and the signification of the features of the check. Nowadays, there are much more security features and, with a few manipulations, a clerk, or an ATM, can verify compliance very fast but most users cannot.
@@PandemoniumMeltDown I would have been one of those users whom didn't understand the nature of scams. It's a good thing that mom and dad kept their check book locked away from me so that their naive son didn't give away money to scammers.
@@PandemoniumMeltDown i should read this book, i think my mom liked the movie, perhaps I'll read it (Movies do love to leave out the good stuff)
@@nostalgicumbry3279 It's a very good book, I enjoyed it a lot. I found it educative, as a kid, learning about scams for the first time.
The ultimate flag is when they want gift cards. There are also dozens of ways to transfer money other than check. Anyone who wants to pay in checks are frauds these days. The only time a check is valid is if the person receiving the check has leverage over the sender in case it bounces. If said leverage does not exist there is no merit in the use of a check.
same here - I've not heard of this scam but as soon as they asked for gift cards my BS-O-Meter went through the roof lol
Thank you for sharing this info. I’d like to think I’d have the mindset to catch and ignore this but when desperate, I may be too worried about blowing an opportunity than to listen to the red flags. Hopefully H finds some solace in knowing he’s not alone. Best of luck to him in his future endeavors!
I know I'm behind the times on this one, but thank you for the warning, the respected anonymity (letting him choose to break it on his own), and the link to a fundraiser where people can help.
Sometimes it's hard to keep in mind that you don't have to be stupid or ignorant or careless to fall into one of these. They prey on the fact that our time and mental faculties are limited. And if you're desperate (I've been there), what would normally be clear warning signs can slip right past. I almost fell into an MLM this way.
I was about to send a donation his way, but the fundraiser is now closed, very near the amount he was scammed out of.
Thanks, Mr. Shrimp! I've now subscribed to see these things a bit closer to when they're posted (still very behind in my queue).
3:35 honestly it's something I never thought about but as a young (19 years old) adult just entering the working world having finished College I realize I've never been taught about scamming and it's just been.. expected of me to.
The only thing I learnt about scamming before my course in IT and cyber security was in my GCSE ICT class, a course that is not mandatory and it was just explaining what a phishing email is and telling you to triple check emails and be wary of spelling errors.
Most schools teach compliance, it's not your fault. Safety is on you as rule #1 states: Only you are responsible for your safety. :P
Love all your content mate cheers from Australia
Part of the deviousness of scams like these is that a _lot_ of younger people (myself included) have very little experience getting a job, so everything is already unfamiliar and perhaps strange. The only part they talk to you in school about (at least here) is the interview and some stuff about checks (but not nearly enough to be comfortable with them yet!)
I totally would've fallen for this, except maybe the ITunes gift card part (which I only know about from your videos, thanks for the awareness!)
no shame for this victim at all with the way things have changed these days. i've almost been victim myself from a semi-employment scam way back in the 2010s (door to door sales trying to delay my paycheck indefinitely). i even had a couple of friends looking for a new apartment (second place they'd ever lived since moving out) who were almost scammed out of their first and last months rent for a place that didn't even exist! it happens, and especially when you're young or in any vulnerable situation. i love that you spread awareness here on your channel!