Scams apparently come in cycles. These days, a scam that was very prevalent in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic is resurfacing with a vengeance. The scammers send out “employment/job offers” that read roughly as follows:
Dear Interpreter/Translator,
Your listing (contact information) that was published on [insert directory or association listing here] has been reviewed by our HR Department at [insert name of random huge corporation here] and we are pleased to invite you to an online interview/briefing exercise. You have been assigned to Dr. [insert actual person’s name at huge corporation here] (HR Coordinator) of [huge corporation]. She would be conducting an online interview/Job briefing with you.
Company Name: [huge corporation]
Job Type: Part-Time, Full-Time (Freelancer).
Hourly Rate: $85/Hour
Training Rate: $65/Hour.
Location: Work from Home.
Payment will be made via Direct Deposit or Check.
Telegram will be used for the purpose of the interview. If interested, follow the steps below to schedule your interview/Job briefing session:
Please indicate your interest in an interview by reaching Dr. [person] on Telegram [or Google Hangouts or similar] using this link (https://t.me/…) or Kindly have Telegram downloaded on any of your devices (either Laptop or both Phone) and add up the Hr. Coordinator (@[person]) and instant message her with his screen name to proceed with the job interview process.
Interview Scheduled: Mondays – Saturdays
Venue: Online Via Telegram [or Google Hangouts or similar]
Time: 9:00 AM-6:00 PM EST (Flexible)
Training is available.
Your verification code is ([random string]). This would serve as your interview identification number throughout the online hiring process. This is an online work from home and working hours are flexible.
Your swift and timely response matters a lot as this is an immediate hire position… We look forward to having you on the team!
NOTE: JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND COMPANY BRIEFINGS WILL BE PROVIDED BY THE HR COORDINATOR VIA TELEGRAM.
Regards From,
Dr. [person]
[actual address]
This is a scam. It is a well-known scam. The alleged interviewer’s name and the corporation keeps changing, but the text and the scam is always the same. Sometimes, they even spoof (impersonate) the “from” email address to make it look as if the corporation really sent that email instead of a free email address (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.). The key giveaway that it’s a scam? No large corporation holds interviews via Telegram, Google Hangouts or other free services. What are they after? I explain how this scam works in my ATA webinar from 2020, which is still more than relevant. The webinar on scams is available here, free, on demand. I’m not getting anything out of this except the satisfaction to have thwarted a few scams. For more on scams, see my publications on the subject that are available here.
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