Alright, alright, alright!

I recently posted a thing about scams and scammers where I basically stated that I won’t be writing about it because it changes so fast and the various scams are so extremely many. After combing through a bunch of feedback, I realize the thirst is real.. And I mean the thirst for a post about this particular topic.

As stated, it’s kind of difficult to write about for the above-mentioned reasons, but I will do an exposé of the largest and most common ones I come across, as a freelancer. Right here and now, I will say that although some of the images that you will find in this article may be from one or two specific sites, these sites are not exclusively where these scams are found. The scams I talk about can be found everywhere and in various forms but they are similar in design and how they try to lure people in.

Before we get into it, beware, this will be a bit of a lengthy post and some repeating elements due to the nature of the subject matter. I’m going to start with a local Swedish scam that’s been popping up a lot for the last couple of months. It’s the background check scam:

The Background Check Scam in Sweden

This new scam has been popping up a lot in Sweden, especially on Social Media Platforms where groups form. It’s a pretty straightforward thing. The scammer has a job to offer and when the victim takes the bait, the scammer, in a compelling way, says that they need to do a background check through our electronic post service and our digital bank ID software (we’re high-tech up here). This is, of course, to gain access to the bank ID and use that to empty your accounts. I’ve seen this particular scam EXPLODE over here, in the last three months. As it’s a new thing, a lot of people haven’t learned it yet and have fallen for it.

As I know that our Nordic neighbors have similar systems, I can only assume that they too have this problem.

The Telegrammers

This is a pretty straightforward thing. Scammer posts a job on random job board. It will look like it comes from a legit company, usually pretty large. They are offering a job that is within the company profile. As I see this extremely often, for me it’s usually writing, cyber security, or AI jobs. The ad might even contain a legit looking email address but it will count on you going straight to DM the poster.

And it’s here the scam continues. A legit job poster would direct you to an email or conduct an interview through phone call, Zoom, or similar. They would NOT redirect you to a third-party chat platform such as Telegram for a chat with their supervisor/manager. Which is what happens. The supervisor/manager trick is to instill trust and give an air of stability.

When the victim falls for this and starts work for the scammer, they are instructed that the payout will be to a certain platform. The victim is urged to open an account with said platform and will see their ”salary” sitting in the account and it’s here the scammers make the profit. To access the salary, the victim needs to pay a fee. There are, of course, no actual funds in this account. It’s just a very well performed scam and the victim has now lost time, their ”salary” and the fee.

Telegram is also used for various crypto scams. My general advice would be to feel free to use Telegram for personal use but stay away from any ”employer” that wants to offer a job using it.

The check fraud

There is a specific type of check fraud that involves buying equipment. In this scam, the scammer will send you a fake check and ask you to use the funds to purchase equipment from a specific vendor. Once you have purchased the equipment, the scammer will then request that you wire the remaining funds back to them. The check will eventually bounce, and you will be left with the bill for the equipment.

This scam is particularly difficult as there are many companies that actually are legit in this and fund the equipment a worker needs to do remote work.

The apartment listing scam

The scammer will create a fake job posting advertising a position as an ”apartment listing agent” or ”real estate agent assistant.” The posting will typically offer high pay for relatively easy work, such as posting apartment listings on Facebook Marketplace. This one is nasty, as it affects several people. You, and potential victims in search of a place to live. The latter will lose money, while you will be implicated in a fraudulent mess and stand at risk of losing your Facebook account and for sure losing the right to use their Marketplace. All while the scammer walks away with money.

The app market scam

This one is a little bit smaller than the others, as it rarely involves money but more someone trying to save their own name if a published app fails, or is infected with malware. I would, personally, never lend my app market account to anyone for the purpose of releasing an app, unless I was part of creating it myself.

Google sites

As people online actually get wiser to these scammers, the scammers need to get more sophisticated in their approach. One way to do that is to create a professionally looking website for their scam. There are several ways to do this and one of the most common ways is by using the free Google Sites.

Luckily, on most platforms, those links now look like in the image above, with the link showing, instead of a snapshot of the site itself, which would be so much easier to mistake for the real deal.

Wrapping up

There are thousands of various scams out there. These are not even close to all I see on a daily basis, but they are the main ones. It would be impossible to write about all of them as they change all the time and they are also getting much more refined.

”But Roine, why are you on job boards?”…I hear someone ask. To be honest, it’s mainly to keep track of these scams and to stay in the loop of scammers evolving. I’ve even replied to a few of these, for educational purposes. I’ve really wanted to see what happens after the initial post. And let me tell you, it is a nasty world. I haven’t had any threats yet, but these scammers can be really rude. I’ve actually thought about my safety, because it’s not impossible they could come after me, for things like this.

When I look for some extra income, I have found that Upwork and Guru are the ones I feel I can trust the most. Neither of them is without problems but both seem to have a moderator team that is actually working to keep the scammers and the less serious employers out. Both have an escrow system where the employer can pre-fund each project and you better make sure that if you are going to use the platform, there’s an escrow system in place and that the client has funded the project prior to starting working.

At Upwork, I also look at if the payment method has been verified. Has it not, I hesitate to send a proposal for the job, unless I can find out who the client is, somehow.