The Better Business Bureau said it's seeing a new trend with employment scams where reputable businesses’ names are being used to post fake job ads.
“We’ve received over a thousand inquiries just on this one employment scam tied to this one business here in Wisconsin,” said Jim Temmer, the President and CEO of the BBB serving Wisconsin.
Scammers, according to the BBB, used the name of a St. Francis company, Dashman Delivery LLC to post a job opportunity for a package manager position.
The job description entails the employee receiving packages, re-labeling and re-shipping them. The job post says it paid $2,700 a month for the work from home position.
Cherie Farwell, a retired woman from Dallas, Texas, applied for the job, after receiving an email about it from ZipRecruiter. She said she gave out a lot of her personal information.
“It took like first and last, and telephone number and address and birth date. I cannot remember if it asked for social security, it might have,” said Farwell.
“It was work from home, and that’s pretty good money,” Farwell continued.
The owner of Dashman Delivery LLC, Brittany Wilcox, said she’s received calls from people all over the country complaining they were victims of a scam. Wilcox said she never posted a job ad. She’s not even hiring.
“My company’s name has been stolen, which is like my identity being stolen,” said Wilcox.
Wilcox said she has two employees including herself. She hires workers to deliver and install appliances. Her company is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has nothing to do with receiving or re-shipping packages.
“It is scary for me and everyone who is being associated with this website,” said Wilcox.
Wilcox has contacted the St. Francis Police Department and the Federal Trade Commission.
Farwell said she’s closely monitoring her bank account in case scammers somehow gain access. She’s worried her identity could be compromised.
TODAY’S TMJ4 contacted the phone number on the job post, but the number was no longer in service.
ZipRecruiter told TODAY’S TMJ4 they have removed the job post. A spokesperson provided the following statement:
"We at ZipRecruiter take great pride in our role in bringing together job seekers and employers. We are also acutely aware that there are bad actors out there who, whether on job boards or on other platforms for internet commerce and communication, seek to use the cloak of anonymity provided by technology to take advantage of others. And while we are pleased that our growth has enabled a dramatic increase in both the number of people we can help and the quality of our service, we are also cognizant that we have become more visible not only to legitimate participants but also to bad actors.
That is why we have implemented, and continue to refine and improve, our systems to address this important issue. On the front end, we use proprietary detection software and have stringent client onboarding processes to vet potential posters and deny access for those who fail to pass our screens. On the back end, we re-run our detection software on job listings as they're posted and have customer service representatives available seven days a week to investigate and weed out suspicious posts.
Still, no system is perfect, no matter how sophisticated or well-intentioned. That is why we take steps to educate job seekers about how to spot suspicious activity and encourage reporting of all such activity to us so we can investigate and take prompt remedial action. Any such reports should be sent to our dedicated e-mail address: trustandsafety@ziprecruiter.com."
