Day 1: the email. A few weeks before school started, I received an email with the subject line suggesting that there was a job opportunity within it. Eager to find a job before the semester started, I opened it. The sender claimed to have gotten my information from DoreWays (the Career Center’s recruitment database), and detailed the responsibilities of the position as his virtual assistant while he was away on international business trips. The pay was great and the tasks seemed easy enough to accomplish around my already full schedule.
I replied to the query, asking if the sender (let’s call him Ralph) would be able to speak on the phone or Skype to explain more about the position he was looking to fill. I got a response several hours later. I’d gotten the job. No phone call. No interview. If this feels suspicious, it should be.
Day 3: the job requirements. So what did the job entail? As Ralph’s new virtual assistant, I was to run various errands for him while he was on business in France (buying/returning items to department stores, getting/dropping off documents to a P.O. box, shopping and gift wrapping, making occasional trips to bank). Simple enough, right?
Ralph informed me that he was sending me a check to pay for the various errands I would need to run for him, and to expect it in a few days. It also would include my pay for the week. By this point, the emails going back and forth started getting too fishy to ignore (grammar mistakes and incorrect punctuation), so I decided to call the Career Center to confirm Ralph’s identity.
Day 5: the Career Center. The woman I spoke to advised that I stop any further communication, saying that recruiters are never supposed to reach out to students through their emails. Never once, was the word “scam” mentioned, though, so I left the conversation wondering whether my new position was actually a scam, or just acquired through incorrect means, according to the Career Center. Meanwhile, I had other friends telling me that Ralph was definitely trying to scam me. I decided to wait until I received the check in the mail to see if this job opportunity was indeed illegitimate.
Day 7: the check. The return address was not Ralph’s. In fact his name didn’t appear on anything within or without the envelope (yet another red flag). Ralph instructed that I deposit the check into my bank account, take a picture of the deposit slip, and email it to him. He still hadn’t told me what errands I needed to run. At this time, the scam was clear. The deposit slip would have my bank information, routing number, account number, etc., and after receiving it, Ralph would be able to drain my account funds before the check he sent me bounced a few weeks later.
Day 8: the authorities.The following morning, I called the bank that had “issued” the check, and they confirmed that it was fraudulent. It’s security department started to investigate the case. Then I called my dad’s friend who is a police officer. He recommended I call the local FBI field office.
After calling my local FBI field office, I was instructed to do the following: submit a form to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, call the United States Postal Inspection Service, and call the National Check Fraud Center. As the plot thickened, Ralph kept emailing me, insistently asking to let him know when I would deposit the check. I kept stalling him, as the various federal investigative teams and FBI agents tried to figure out whether they could track Ralph down using the open lines of communication I had with him.
After trying to trace his email and phone number, the FBI agents told me that Ralph’s contact information was virtually untraceable. They gave me the go ahead to stop all communication with him.
Day 9: the resignation letter. I had held Ralph’s increasingly incoherent emails off for long enough. The mail fraud, check fraud and FBI people couldn’t do anything else to help me, so it was time to cut Ralph off. Rather than just ignore Ralph’s emails, I decided to let him know what I’d learned over the last few days. My last message to him went a little something like this:
“Hi Ralph, I have some news. Turns out the check you sent me was fraudulent. The bank kindly notified me before I cashed it. As a result, I’ve decided to stop working with you effective immediately. Also, I just thought I’d let you know that the bank’s security team, USPS Inspection Office, National Check Fraud Center, local FBI field agents, and Federal Internet Crime departments have taken over the case so it’s out of my hands and control. Hope everything works out for you and you still get to enjoy France. I hear it’s beautiful this time of year.”
I tell this cautionary tale for several reasons. Firstly, if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Secondly, before giving out personal information, especially things like bank information or SSN, research people and confirm their identity. A good place to start is LinkedIn. And thirdly, if something seems suspicious, listen to your gut and do what you can to check things out.
College students are a vulnerable population for internet scams, especially ones like this where tempting amounts of money are being offered. Since Ralph, I have received another email similar to his initial one through DoreWays, and I have friends who have had the same experience. I was fortunate that nothing bad came from this saga, and I am happy that it happened. That said, this kind of situation should not have happened at all, and if Vanderbilt Career Center’s recruiting system really has been breached by other Ralphs, students should be informed of the potential SCAMS that are out there.
Hopefully after reading this, others can avoid the scam I found myself in the middle of, and now have some tools to outsmart their own Ralphs.