Did you receive a job offer email from Mike Hayes posing as a recruiter at MDNA Life Sciences? Beware! it’s not a legit remote wok opportunity! Presently, employment scammers are impersonating MDNA Life Sciences (a biotech company)
If you’ve gotten one of such emails and you’re in doubt of its legitimacy, this article shed a light on the job offer scam.
What makes the MDNA Life Sciences Job Offer Email a Scam?
The remote job offer has all the tell-tale signs of an employment scam.
- Firstly, it’s unsolicited (you never applied for the position). You might think you might have sent them a resume, but when you check your sent mails, you wouldn’t see any sent to MDNA Life Sciences.
- The email isn’t from the official MDNA Life Sciences mail server which is ‘@mdnalifesciences.com) but from email address that has the word ‘career’ attached to it. This is common with employment scams.
- The income quoted for the remote job role (data scientist, data entry clerk, e.t.c) is too good to be true.
- The interview is done via texts only on Ring Central (which is unusual for a reputable firm). Lacks formal onboarding process.
- The grammar used in the email and attached pdf is unprofessional with lots of grammatical errors.
So what happens when you get hired? Here’s a breakdown of how the scam works and how to stay protected;
How The Scam MDNA Life Sciences Job Offer Works
The fake job offer is an advance fee scam. The fraudsters use ‘work equipment fee’ tactics to scam job seekers. After a short interview done via chats, they promise to send check for equipment for the remote job. Items such as;
- Apple MacBook Pro 16″ Core i9 2.4GHz 64GB 1TB Radeon Pro 5500M
- HP LaserJet M577f Laser All-In-One Color Printer
- Fellowes Proteus 125 Thermal & Cold Laminator, 12.5″ Width, Putty (5709501)
- Fellowes Micro-Shred Confetti-cut paper shredder (Fellowes Power-shred MS-450Cs)
- Jabra GN9120 (Flex Boom Headset)
.A third party would be introduced as a certified vendor whom employees are to buy the equipment from. However, this person is involved in the scam. The check is an invalid one and doesn’t get approved immediately, but the fraudsters coerce their victims to make the payment with their own money while awaiting bank approval.
All these are examples of advance fee scam and are quite common with fake employment. Once you make the payment, the scammers would disappear and cease all communication with you.
Yearly, thousands of job seekers fall prey to job scams, especially remote job offers. So how do you stay protected? what are the red flags of job scams?
Warning Signs of Job Scams
1 – Unsolicited Recruitment Text
Received an unsolicited job offer via WhatsApp, text message or email? There’s a likelihood that it’s a scam, especially if it came from a company you’ve never applied to. Legit companies wouldn’t send you job texts out of the blues. There’s always a due process for hiring.
2- Too Good To Be True Pay
This is one of the very first red flags. It’s true we all like the idea of being paid high, but when the quoted pay is far above what the industry normally pays, you need to pause. If they’re promising to pay higher than the market rate, tread with caution. Sometimes they might promise unrealistic work hours with no specific skill for huge pay, making the job look irresistible. That’s just a bait with which to entice their victims.
3 – Conducts a Shallow Interview
The interview process is always a dead giveaway. It’s always quick and short, without any depth. Then you’re told you’ve been hired. Most times, the interview is hosted on Signal App or Telegram, via text messages with just an acting HR.
No legitimate business or company would hire an employee without a thorough interview to ascertain if they indeed meet the criteria.
4 – Requests for a Fee
If after the interview and onboarding, you’re asked to pay an amount of money, then it’s a scam. This fee could either be labelled ‘Application fee’ or ‘Upgrade fee’. Whatever name it’s called, legit companies don’t collect money from employees.
What to Do If you fell for this Employment Scam
If you’ve already submitted your personal details and CV to the crooks behind this fake employment offer. You should do the following;
Enroll in identity theft monitoring services
Identity protection services like Experian or Aura monitor databases that collect different types of information. When you enroll with them, you’d receive an alert notifying you of suspicious activities like –
- a change of address request
- court or arrest records
- orders for new utility, cable, or wireless services
- an application for a payday loan, etc.
Experian.com for example, has a basic Identity Theft monitoring plan which is free. I advise that you sign up for it, if you can’t afford the premium plan which is $24.99 monthly.
Alert your Bank of the Fraudulent Transaction
If you fell for the equipment vendor plot and made the payment using your account, immediately notify your bank. Send screenshots of the conversations between you and the criminal, payment receipt, etc.
You should also request for a chargeback if it’s possible to recover your money.
Spread Awareness of the Ongoing Scam
It’s very important that you inform people of your experience with the crooks impersonating Conformal Medical. You could do this on Forums, or even Threads like Reddit. This would help prevent others from being victims of the scam.
You can also go a step further by reporting the scam to government authorities like – FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov). This would make them put up a notice warning the public of the scam.
Precaution
Unsolicited job emails from MDNA Life Sciences should be treated as scam and disregarded. Employment scammers are becoming smarter lately – they go as far as impersonating reputable companies, making job seekers think they’re the real deal. However, it’s all part of their scheme. Once they’ve established the trust, they’d proceed in their scam which could be disguised as ‘equipment fee’ ‘training fee’ ‘upgrade fee’ etc.
When approached by a job recruiter either online or offline, the first thing to do is research the company and the job opportunity. Find the company on the internet and review their online presence, including their social media. Enter the company’s name and the word “scam” on search engine, paste the email address too to find out if it has been flagged as scam.
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