WASHINGTON (7News) — Amid the chorus of dings from your cell phone being bombarded by texts, you have likely received scam messages disguised to look like they’re being sent by job recruiters offering lucrative opportunities, which one expert said could be linked to the government shutdown potentially putting federal workers at risk of missing a paycheck.
People who work in the D.C. area, which would be among the hardest hit regions by shutdown-related paycheck and job losses, told 7News they have received several of these spam messages offering filet mignon pay.
“I would say [I get them] two or three times a week. Sometimes I get multiple texts in one day. A lot of it is almost catfish, where they tell you you can work from home for x amount of money per week,” said Sheree Delice.
7News team members have also received multiple such messages.
One text offers monthly pay exceeding $6,000 per month, while another claims you can make up to $500 each day while working from home.
Dr. J. Michael Skiba, also known as “Dr. Fraud,” is a financial crimes expert, and told 7News these offers have quite a few red flags.
“It’s too good to be true. It’s usually going to offer you higher salary, something appealing, remote work, travel to exotic destinations, flexible work time,” Skiba said. “Usually, there’s a sense of urgency. They might say, ‘Hey, if you’re not interested, let us know. We’re going to hop on to the next 200 people that are in line for this.’ It’s an old sales trick.”
Delice said she does not engage with these scam texts and takes the appropriate actions.
“I work in IT, so we know those are spam and we automatically report them or delete them, or block the number,” Delice said. “The minute you click on the URL, they could get access to your IP, find out where your location is, maybe some of your passwords.”
Skiba also said the timing of this particular scam could be related to the government shutdown.
“We’re definitely seeing a spike in this activity right now. It’s cyclical. Another big time of year is usually when the college kids graduate. That’s a big one. Also, when they go back to school. What’s going to happen is the fraudsters, they prey on vulnerable populations. So, they’re going to move around depending on the season, depending on what’s going on in the news, so there’s no doubt in my mind there’s a spike in this activity. As we’re approaching the holidays, right now holiday scams are big, shipping scams, e-cards. But at this specific moment, it’s still a little too early for that, so they’re looking for the next big thing. There’s no doubt these job scams are at the top of the list because, quite frankly, there’s a larger pool of candidates right now, at this moment, looking for work,” Skiba said.
According to Skiba, these texts are being sent so often because AI and bots are a key component of the scam.
However, he also said it is easy to protect yourself.
“Do not engage at all,” Skiba said. “Now it’s all done by AI and by bots. What happens is they send out millions of these, sometimes per second. They can do it that fast. The second you engage in any capacity – whether you answer the phone, whether you click on the link – what it does is it tells the AI, ‘Hey, I have a human.’ All of a sudden, you become super popular, and you then get a human being, and then they start to dig in. They may even have some information on your profile.”
Various law enforcement agencies told 7News recipients of these messages should not click on any links or text back, report the spam to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and visit the company’s website if you are interested in a job.
The Alexandria Police Department provided the following tips:
“Go on their website, go on Careers, go on LinkedIn, and just see are they even searching for a job, do they have any listings, then try and make a contact,” Skiba said. “Some of the flags that will come a little bit later is, especially if they hire you on the spot, no interviews, don’t ask for transcripts, don’t ask for references. They just want to push you through. But also, do not pay for anything. A lot of times, this is what they’ll do: they might not get you with the scam, itself, but they might say, ‘Okay, yes, you’ve got the jo,b but you need to pay us to ship your laptop, so here’s an account.'”
In the meantime, Delice said she will continue telling her friends and family to be careful when receiving texts from unknown numbers.
“You can definitely get bamboozled when you open that link, which is what I always tell my family members, just don’t open it,” Delice said. If you see the sender is not in your phone book, just automatically delete it.”
