Like many, I have been in the unfortunate situation of abruptly finding myself without a job. I don't mind telling you, in the moment, it's a completely demoralizing experience. When this did happen to me, there were a few steps I took so I could move forward productively:

1) I was gracious -- I thanked my employer for the opportunity and offered to expedited any needed transition. Why was I so nice? I don't believe in burning bridges. You're going to need former colleagues/co-workers for letters of recommendation and other references.

2) The very next day I went to my local unemployment office to make sure I was set for collecting unemployment and to check what resources they had to help me get back on my feet. I wanted to be as educated as I could be on what support services were available to me. Knowledge is power!

3) I took some time for self-reflection. It's not an easy thing to do -- it's a lot easier to feel hurt or angry and just stay that way. But that's not particularly productive. Unless your entire company/department was let go, I feel certain there are things about your own history (real or perceived) that can inform future behavior. Ask the hard questions! What could I have done differently to prevent this? Why me and not someone else? Take those answers and learn from them -- it will help prevent repeating the same behaviors in the future and minimize the chances that this happens more than once!

I filled out a application for a warehouse supervisor position. And about 2 or 3 days later this lady emails me. She said that she had a position for a warehouse supervisor/management position told me the hours of be working and that there was a 400 dollar sign on bonus, she asked if I was okay with that. And if it was okay and the higher ups approved she would send me a employment agreement letter. Sure enough 4 or 5 days later, I get a email congratulating me on joining the firm. And the employee agreement. Which stated 24 weeks of probationary period in which they can fire me without cause and without payment. But the start pay is 87,000 a yr. And after the 24 weeks bumps up to 116,000 a yr. Now I still have to get them a signed employee agreement by the 23rd as to weather I still want to work there. And im suppose to meet someone on the 27th to start. And I forgot to mention the location is confidential and under renovation. So she never told me where to go. And still hasn't told me where it was other then driving distance. Which could be anywhere. I'm pretty sure its a scam but i can't figure out the scam. She said id be recieving a check for my 400 sign on bonus and money to get erp software. She even stated to deposit it and let the check clear both banks. So whats the scam here? What am I missing?

If anyone wants to pay to subscribe to Resume Coach to create so called resume templates, don't do it because it is a scam. Once you pay for the service, you'll get a nice little return message from Emma at Resume Coach. Then you sign on with your password and begin to anticipate the different resume templates to create a custom designed resume. Ok, that's great. But the problem is not that you cannot enter all the information, but when it comes time to enter the start and end dates. So, when the date cell is clicked on, a calendar pops up showing the current date, the days are missing and when you click on it, nothing happens. So, what good is this service if you can't enter start dates to create your resume? I even sent and e-mail to Emma, the Resume Coach yesterday and have not heard back from her since. So, now I just unsubscribed from this site because it is a scam. And it's like purchasing a car but you can't have the keys? I am very disappointed because I was impressed with the service at first, but now I wash my hands from them. Jobcasers, beware of these so called resume search engines. They are not all what they appear to be. Seems like scammers are out there taking advantage of people who are relying on a reputable resume service to create a decent resume to get back in the job market. What do you all think? Has anyone else experience this? If so, please speak up so that we will know the legitimate resume search engines from the bogus ones.

I received a text message yesterday from an unknown number saying that they had just received my resume from Careerbuilder and if I was interested in a job, to respond. Curious, I said yes, they said I needed to talk to their HR person through Google Hangouts, so I agreed (though I was thinking it was odd).

The guy said he was with Houzz (which is a legitimate company) and we could do an interview through Hangouts (which again I thought was odd, but hey, companies are doing everything by technology these days) so I went with it. He asked me a bunch of generic interview questions and told me to answer individually and half way through, he asked me if I was done, which was odd, considering he asked the questions so he should have known, but I ignored him and finished. He said he had to 'check' with the rest of his team and he'd let me know in 10 minutes. After two, he came back and said I had the job.

So here's what was throwing up red flags for me other than the over the internet thing:
- His grammar wasn't the best, I know that not everyone's is, but I've been the target of scams before and they all seem to have this problem, not really bad but making things plural that shouldn't be, like 'what is your full names' or the opposite like 'do you have any further question' etc.
-He wanted to send me checks for a signing bonus and another to purchase two computers as well as a printer, the reason, he said, was to make sure they could trust me with money. This is very similar to a several scams I've been a target of but never fell for.
-He sent me 'Company Employment Documentation' which was suspicious as it wasn't official looking at all. I didn't fill it out and it didn't ask for anything other than my personal info and the only really personal question was 'where were you born'. I'm just now realizing that that is a common security question people use when signing up for things like a bank account.
-Honestly I'm not sure this should have, but this struck me as funny, but they offered exactly twice what I'm making at my current job, something that they could find out on Careerbuilder.

Training is to take place over Hangouts, over two weeks, this week going over documents and procedures, next week using the 'home office' I'm supposed to purchase. Today was the first day and all it consisted of was three questions that when I Googled them, they came up really quickly, I didn't even have to type out the full question before it auto filled. He wanted me to answer these questions with no less than 1000 words. Curious, I looked on Glassdoor and they allow you to see payroll of companies, and they were offering me a lot more than the people who are working there now are making, the only ones making near what I was offered were higher ups or engineers.

They were pushy, from the person who sent the text message yesterday and text me twice before I could even respond, to the guy who wouldn't let me finish answering his questions before he wanted to know if I was done. He was also very patronizing, something that makes my hackles go up big time.

The whole thing just felt wrong and since Houzz is an actual company, I called customer support, just to see if these were common practices. The lady looked up the guys name and said she couldn't find him and said that they have people come in and do face to face interviews, not over Hangouts. His email is a Gmail account, and I'm not sure if they have work emails, but I'd be surprised if they didn't. But she did say if you are interested, they are hiring, the actual Houzz, not these scammers, (I don't work for them, I just know a lot of people are looking for jobs)

I just wanted to let everyone know, in case they receive the same offer, not to fall for it. I've blocked him and if they do send me the checks, I'll be shredding them.

There seems to be a new trend cropping up lately on Jobcase. In the past week I have seen no fewer the six people inquiring about envelope stuffing jobs.

For those not in the know, this type of work is promised by companies as a work-from-home opportunity simply making money to mail out advertisements.

The question begs to be asked though; Why would a legitimate business want to pay humans to stuff envelopes when they have automated machines that do this already?

The short answer is, they don't.

Back in the 50's, local and big businesses used home-based employees to stuff mailers with coupons. Not too dissimilar to the Valu-Pak type coupon packets you get in the mail today. However, as automation came to fruition, businesses found that automatic sorting of these types of mailers could best be handled by machines that could literally stuff thousands of envelopes an hour and far surpass any level of productivity a human could do.

Today, any advertisement you see for envelope stuffing jobs falls into the MLM category, although it might be more accurate to call this a scheme.

The modern version of the envelope stuffing job requires that applicants purchase a starter kit that runs anywhere from 40-100 dollars. Let that sink in. What legit business would ask you to pay them so that you can do a job for them? That is a huge red flag.

The job now entails stuffing envelopes with offers to join your work from home team stuffing envelopes. The envelopes you mail out have your ID number on it. When people respond and purchase a starter kit from you, you get a few cents. Not dollars...cents. The more people you can rope into the envelope stuffing scheme the more pennies you can make. There are no products or services you are soliciting. You aren't providing marketing for any reputable company, you are simply a cog in a MLM scheme. The products and services included in the envelopes you mail out either don't exist or of such crap value that no one would actually buy them. But, should you find someone who has maybe been in a coma for the last 50 years, they may purchase something from you..and you get a few more cents.

It is not sustainable income, it costs you money as you have to keep buying mail kits. The more people you bring on the more saturated the pyramid becomes which means you are literally scouting yourself out of money.

This scheme is featured on the Federal Trade Commission's website as a known scam/scheme.

To be clear and concise:

THERE ARE NO LEGITIMATE ENVELOPE STUFFING JOBS

Congratulations Shari,

Good to get your response, after the review and consideration of your answers to the questionnaire your application is successful and i wish to congratulate you on the new job as my personal assistant. I will be in town in 2 weeks & we'll set-up an appointment to meet so you can
sign your employment paperwork.

I will provide you with the equipment you'll be working with and it will come with internet facilities. You'll also be given a start-up bonus (supplies etc.) for this job which will be included in the
funds you will receive for the equipment.

Every instruction will be given to you on what to do with the equipment immediately you receive them, here is the list of the
equipment that will be shipped for work purpose;

EQUIPMENT:
The Following would be shipped to you by my agent to facilitate your work & duties with me
* HP business machine Notebook Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPUT2330
@1.60GHz 1.60GHz
* Portable All-in-one Printer, Scanner & Fax machine
* Laptop hard-case
* Kasper sky Internet Security application installed on the Laptop

I will also provide you with the funds to handle the shipping cost of the above equipment to you so you don't have to use your personal funds. Working for me with the provided equipment is very necessary
because there is a wide range of software installed on the system to protect data, enhance ease duty, as well as speed and accuracy of any work you're doing on it. The special features also calculates the
number of hours you work daily so that I can ascertain the bonuses that will be given to you at the end of every month.

Please provide answers to the following schedule.
1. How many hours are you willing to Work per day?
2. What time range? If you wish to work more than 5 Hours per Day,
then let me know.
3. Payroll Interval? ( Weekly or Bi-weekly )

IMPORTANT : Kindly provide your Name, address & phone # for payroll
purpose and your start-up bonus.

FULL NAME:
ADDRESS(Apt #):
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
CELL PHONE#:

I will be awaiting for your prompt response, I look forward to a great
working relationship with you.

Sincerely,
Charles Powell.

I received an email, then a call from a recruiter with US Tech Solutions, who is based out of New Jersey (and I live in Texas). I'm sure she got my information from the many job search websites that are online, because I have never applied with them. She said she had a position that I was good fit for and wanted to submit my resume. She said the position was for a 1 month contract, with starting date of immediately. The client would only be conducting phone screens for the position, so I said yes. That was Wednesday. Today in the morning, the recruiter calls me back and says Congratulations, the company (which I will not name) has chosen you for this position, which you will start on Monday. So I thought wow thats great, but no one ever called me? So right away she says, I just need to get a few details from you, please state your full legal name, okay, so I did. Next she asks for my SSN, thats when I said wait a minute... So I didn't disclose my SSN, told her I would be calling her back. I've googled US Tech Solutions and have not found anything regarding them being scammers, but I'm a firm believer of if its too good to be true.... So, have any of you worked through US Tech Solutions before? Like I said, I can't find any negative comments regarding someone being a victim of identity theft because of this company, but I'm still having a hard time convincing myself to send them all of my personal information, which is needed to complete the background screening. Please help!

I received a text yesterday from someone who wrote that she was contacting me from Coventry Health Care and was I interested in working from home.? She said they got my resume from CAREER BUILDER. If I was interested I was to open hangouts and add the HR manager for an interview. So far sounded like it could happen. So I do so and have an interview
I am feeling suspicious however because the pay is too high, I need software to do the job, there were 3 jobs offered, which one did I want?. No instruction regarding a drug test or background search. His hangout address was gmail. Why not telephone? He said that they would send me all the docs. for hire and interviews me. Gets back in an hour and tells me I have the job. Here,s the hook. THEY WILL SEND ME A CHECK VIA FEDEX THAT I AM TO DEPOSIT AND PURCHASE THE NECESSARY SOFTWARE TO DO THE JOB
First he said to wait until the check clears but also says he wants me to get going ASAP. I agree to continue the conversation today at 9am. Meanwhile I call COVENTRY which is now Aetna and was told this gentleman is NOT an employee and that they never interview via email or IM, but that they MAY interview by phone. His initial message had the corporate logo
So this morning he IMs me and asks if I have ever heard of mobile banking. I am thinking that he is going to ask for my account information so they can transfer funds directly to my account. At this point I am out of patience and tell him I had just finished speaking to COVENTRY and he is not an employee of that company. Less than a minute later he is offline
I had a little more fun and texted to the person that sent me to him asking if Albert had told her that the Jig was up. She replied Talk to him. He's the HR manager. I answered No he isn't and neither of you work for Coventry. I'm not brilliant but there were enough gaps and errors that made me take time to investigate. An error on my part was choosing an option at CAREER BUILDER that let everyone view my resume instead of only employers that contract with them. In a way they were stupid. My resume clearly states experience in banking and finance.

I've been unemployed for a while now, so when I got a text on my phone telling me that my resume had been reviewed, and that they wanted to interview me on Google Hangouts, I didn't see anything wrong.
The details were, work at home customer service, 5 days of training at 8 hours a day for $12 an hour, then bumping me to $30 an hour for 8 hour days. In addition, they would be sending me a check (Red flag 1) to cover the setup of my home office, to include an HP Envy laptop, 3 in 1 printer, cell phone (which they would pay the monthly bill for) and software. When I said that I had all that equipment, I was told for warranty purposes, I needed to use their approved vendor in case something happened and work needed to be done. (Red flag 2). The company name they used was Magnum Medical out of Latvia.
Attempting due diligence, I Googled Magnum Medical and found their location in Latvia, in addition to a couple of locations in America, per websites. I then checked them on Glassdoor.com, and again, there was a page for them, but no real information. (Red flag 3)
So, they're supposed to FedEx me a check overnight. I was given the tracking number, and as it turned out, the package was being held at FedEx initially due to incorrect address, which was changed to irregularities on the account by FedEx.
As I'm explaining this to the supervisor, he tells me that while I'm waiting on the check, I need to go to the store and buy 2 $100 I-Tunes cards, so I can provide them with the serial numbers on the cards in order to unlock their proprietary software. (Red flag 4).
This was what ultimately confirmed the scam for me. I reported the issue to Apple, who confirmed it was a scam, and then I reported it to IC3, the FTC and the FBI.
Well, the check arrived today, and conveniently enough was drawn on an out of state bank - i.e. one with no branch offices in my state (Georgia). So I called their customer service line and was informed in no uncertain terms that the cashier's check was a fake.
Then they tried to contact me on Google Hangouts again, asking me if I'd received the check and to confirm the amount ($3650) and when I was going to deposit it.
I informed them that Comerica had verified that the check was fraudulent, at which point they attempted to deny that, and I shut them down with look, we both know you're trying to run a scam. This entire conversation from the beginning has been recorded and sent to the FTC, IC3 and the FBI.
So, long story short, if someone gives you a job offer online, then offers to send you a check for required office equipment that you are to buy only from their approved vendor, don't bother. This is a variation on the overpay check scam, and if you deposit the cashier's check you will be asked to wire a large portion of it to their vendor, only to find that you'll have an empty bank account and possible criminal charges instead of the equipment you thought you'd ordered for a job that doesn't exist.

So please please be careful.

#scam #jobscam #checkfraud #magnum #magnummedical #latvia