I was contacted off of a listing on upwork. I was invited to interview via skype because of the coronavirus. His name was Jeremy Diegues, or that’s what his skype name said.
He conducted a 30 minute interview and then I was told he was sending the information up to be reviewed. About 30 minutes later I was told I had gotten the job. Then he went over the details of the job and that I would need certain software and a Macbook in order to do the job. I was also sent an employment contract to sign. It didn’t look fake to me, but I had never been hired remotely before. It seemed a little odd that they would need me to own a Macbook specifically but I didn’t think much of it. I was asked if I had $500 to pay for that software and I said no. I was then sent a check via email that I was supposed to print and deposit through my mobile banking app. This didn’t work. They said they could direct deposit the money to me. I stupidly gave them my banking data. Yesterday, $5,800 dollars was deposited into my account which my bank flagged as fraudulent the next day because it came from the state of Arizona unemployment benefit. I do not live in Arizona. My bank then closed my account because they thought I was committing fraud or something. So, while I luckily didn’t lose any of my own money, it has cost me a ton of time and effort to try to resolve this with my bank. Jeremy Diegues continues to say he is not a fraud but has not and will not explain why this happened. I’m left to assume that this must be a scam. I don’t have any other explanation for this all.
The email address he used was [email protected]
The phone number he used was 706-607-9625, though that could easily be changed as I found out it was a text now number, which is an app you can use to generate a random number.
I was contacted through upwork by a person pretending to be Jeremy Dieguez, who will ask for personal contact info at some point in the “interview” do not reach out to this person.
Victim Location 23220
Type of a scam Employment
I applied to a position that was advertised on Upwork, which was seeking "copyeditors/editors/proofreaders". I was sent a verification code to do an interview on Google hangouts. The scammer was impersonating Jeremy Diéguez from MacMillan Publishing. He used the email address: [email protected] The person who initially contacted me on Upwork was Renne. They took the job down once I began interviewing. "Van Diéguez" conducted an extensive interview over Google Hangouts, and finally, said I would need supplies, including software and a printer and a Macbook. They sent me a fake check and asked how long it would take me to deposit this. They sent a fake contract as well. This is how he introduced himself: "I’m Mr Van Diéguez , one of the Directors of Macmillan Education. I will be the one to brief you about the project and the company. Kindly introduce yourself."
Whoever you are, you are not alone. This also happened to me just today.