A post-grad worker says she was hired remotely and trained by scammers pretending to be managers. Her friend made a viral video to spread awareness to others looking for jobs.
Shan (@shannonjenk) went viral on TikTok for sharing the story about her friend getting scammed. Her video has reached over 153,000 views by Thursday afternoon. Shan says her friend was scammed out of $23,000.
Shan says she posted her video after seeing another girl on her TikTok for you page who was scammed similarly.
“Please watch this video so that it does not happen to you too,” she says.
@shannonjenk DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM!! 😣#scam #jobscam #jobsearch ♬ original sound – Shan
Shan starts her story saying one of her good friends from college was looking for jobs after graduation. “Obviously if you are in need of money and in need of a job you are more vulnerable than other people,” she says.
Her friend had been on the job search for awhile, and found a good opportunity and ran with it, Shan says. “Basically what I’m saying is do your research on companies, even LinkedIn,” she adds.
Shan says her friend received contracts and got on-boarded for training. “This person I’m talking about got live training every single day and was sent things to do every day, like homework,” she adds.
While demonstrating talking on the phone, Shan says her friend was talking to real people and helping them through “homework,” for their job.
“Yes, they will go to those lengths to literally scam you,” she says.
After training, Shan says her friend linked their account with the company after hearing they pay through direct deposit. “Obviously that makes sense, like this is how we’re gonna pay you for your training,” she explains.
Shan says her friend gave the company their routing and account number, and then found their account to be overdrawn.
Referring to her friend, Shan says, “They look at their account and it literally says negative $23,000.”
Once her friend realizes the whole company is a scam, Shan says they lost all contact with anyone from the company.
“Be smart, do your research, ask for proof,” she says. Shan’s friend allegedly called the police, filed reports and called the bank, but the money has still not been replaced and the scammer has not been found.
“Please watch out, this happens to people all the time,” she says.
One viewer comments, “Almost happened to me once. Interview was in google hangouts, scheduled via texting app.”
Another says, “This literally happened to me today. Luckily I read that offer letter like a hawk and found too many typos for my liking.”
In recent headlines, the Daily Dot has covered other viral content surrounding online job scams. One worker warns of Indeed scammers making fake companies, and another worker says she accepted a scam job on LinkedIn.
The Daily Dot reached out to Shan via TikTok direct message.
