A Smithfield woman lost $1,600 recently in an online job scam. Police are investigating.
The 46 year-old victim said she was looking for employment and ran across a Facebook ad from what appeared to be a job placement company. She spoke to some friends about similar online job ads and they indicated they had success with finding employment through some of them.
The victim contacted this particular company and after filling out an application they promised to help find her employment.
Soon thereafter, they contacted the local woman saying they had found her a job but asked she send $1,600 in iTune gift cards to help pay for fees, office supplies, and related costs. Only after providing the gift card numbers to the scammer she realized she had been defrauded.
Smithfield Police Captain R. Sheppard said anytime you’re asked to pay with a gift card it’s usually a scam.
According to the Federal Trade Commission legitimate placement firms do not typically charge fees. If a placement firm asks for a fee, walk away. You could be dealing with a scam. Job scams can be reported to the FTC.
Do people just not understand that scammers will not stop until people stop falling for their freaking scams???? Wake up people.
What I@#$ot would send Itune or any gift card to anyone to help them find a JOB? …. Employers do not charge you to work … duh! they PAY you to work!
Something really fishy about this story.. Who’s really running the scam here? Your not smart enough to know that itune gift cards are not related to a job in any way but you’re smart enough to report this incident to the police and news? Hmm
My thoughts exactly!!! This person probably took somebody else money and using this scam to cover up.
scammers suck…being scammed sucks…being skeptical of everything is a harsh lesson sometimes
Can iTune you on that job for $1600?