Victim Location 27030
Type of a scam Employment
An ad was posted on Facebook requesting employees for a company based out of Philadelphia that offered a flexible schedule, remote work and pay at $17 an hour. I sent a message to the person who posted the ad and was given instructions to download "hangout" app on my phone and a representative for the company would contact me there, that was the first red flag as most legit companies that I have dealt with will contact you via email, video chat or phone. I went along with it and downloaded the app and was contacted by someone who referred to themselves as an executive who was 23 years of age and had a lot of bachelor degrees for such a young person. They instantly wanted my my name, address and phone number and when I would ask questions such as was payment made via check or direct deposit or anything in general about the company my questions went ignored. They then proceeded to inform me that they would ship me an apple computer for work purposes and that once the computer was shipped I would need to purchase the software but they would provide a PDF check that I would print and deposit through my mobile banking. It would be a check for $1250.00, $100 I would keep for a sign on bonus, $250 would be used to purchase a printer and the rest would go to purchasing the software, which had to be paid for via cash app. This was when I really started questioning because if a business is offering you a computer for work purposes, that usually have the software needed installed on the computer before it is shipped to the employee. I wanted to test them, so I stated that my bank was old school and did not offer mobile banking, the messenger went silent for hours until I replied with "but I might be able to work around that" and instantly got a response back with a request for a picture for a "access badge" (why would an access badge be needed for remote/work from home employment?). A example photo was sent, which was suppose to be the lady that I was currently talking to and upon examining the picture I noticed that things had been altered. At that point I had enough of the games so I responded to them with that I tried to do research outside of the company website so I didn’t jump feet first into a scam and found no information, I also stated how I noticed the alterations on the photo that was sent to me. After that message was sent it was only a matter of seconds before that account on "hangout" completely disappeared.