Victim Location 11755
Total money lost $200
Type of a scam Employment
I had been posting my resume and applying for jobs on Indeed.com. I got an email from a John Canterberry responding to one of my applications that I had sent in for a Medical Receptionist job. In the email, he described that the receptionist job has been filled already but because of my impressive resume, he wanted to offer me a job as a work-at-home Personal Assistant to the head of HR at this company (He never stated the company). He stated that I will get weekly pay for completing my weekly assignments. I responded to his email, accepting this position but did not hear back from him until a few days later. He responded by telling me he will send me a package and I will have to pick up paperwork and my first assignment is to handle a donation he contributes to. I waited for this package for almost a week, he sent me a tracking number that was pending for a while, and then he finally sent me an email saying to reconfirm my address as the package was sent back to him.
Finally, two weeks later, he texted me saying that I will receive a check in the mail for his errands and my weekly pay. He instructed that I deposit this check right away and send a photo of the receipt. After doing so, he asked me how much money was currently available so I told him $200. He then instructed me to buy two $100 amazon gift cards. I thought this was extremely strange but it never crossed my mind that this could be a scam. I texted him saying that I will buy one gift card today and the other tomorrow when the rest of the funds is available. He then texted back saying, you have $200 available now so you can buy both cards. My mindset was that he was my "employer" and I didn’t want to mess up so I went ahead and bought those gift cards.
He then instructed me to take a picture of the gift card receipt as well as the redemption code on the back of the cards. I did so. He then told me he will text me the next day.
For the rest of the day, I had a gut instinct that something wasn’t right, and it was then that my friend and I found an Indeed.com discussion board of people that fell for this "Personal Assistant" job scam, and the email that I received from "John Canterberry" was identical to the emails posted on his discussion board, with just a few name changes.
We check amazon.com to see if I can redeem the codes myself but they had already been redeemed by then.
Please be careful on Indeed.com. It is shocking that such a huge network that you trust with your information can be lingered with scammers. Do not respond to a Personal Assistant, work-at-home, "granted" position. If you are unsure whether a check is good or not, check with your bank to report possible fraudulent checks and have them investigate.
I unfortunately am now responsible for the $200 as well as the $12 fee for depositing a bounced check. The bank has informed me that I can contact the police on getting my $200 back but the bank cannot do anything for me right now.