O wow. It has been a while since I've blogged - purely because I work in front of a PC and have little to no motivation to really hop back on to type some more!
What drew me to actually submitting a blog post was purely because I've noticed something absolutely ridiculous.
Like many, I do keep my options open when it comes to job/career opportunities - who I assume aren't thoroughly satisfied with certain aspects. So, these days I do occasionally kill time looking at the current job market and analyzing what skills I lack or any "bigger" opportunities.
To do so, you normally have a profile created with your current resume and cover letter, ready to roll and is set to public ('cause you want "potential" scouts to review your profile, right?).
I never had many fake or scam offers that come through - or maybe the ones that do reach out are like legit 1000% "I know you're a fucking scammer, go-away" message. However, of course scammers have evolved with the advancement of technology and the multitude of social apps available to the public.
If you're at any point doubtful of a job posting, I cannot stress enough to do RESEARCH. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be an intense investigation and this article provides a good explanation or example of what the warning signs are (I can't be bothered typing up a whole new post on this and cause the Internet already provides).
However, what I am going to share today are the two experiences I had and for my own sick sense of humour, I'm posting this as a warning for anyone who might be on the naive/gullible side.
Preface: Here are the two scammers (unsure if they are related, but the methodologies are eerily similar). One introduced their company as Panalpina (a complete rip-off of an existing international logistics company of the same name) and the other as Delivery Market.
They both reached out with very similar introduction email and with the same job title as one another: Let's play Spot-The-Difference, shall we?
Panalpina
Delivery Market
Personal Info Scam
On top of the fact that they both are a "representative of an international logistics company", they both request for a current mobile phone number and to communicate via WhatsApp. The 1st time with the "Panalpina" group, I did reach out using it because I'm a curious person by nature. They were also insistent that I hopped on to the app, so I did.
Apologies for the bad editing stitch which I did on Paint.
Apologies for the bad editing stitch which I did on Paint.
HMMM.. I have to send a scanned image of both sides of either my passport or driver's licence and a "selfie" BEFORE getting an interview? By phone, no less. Some sketchy punctuation & grammatical errors here and there, but hey no one's perfect.
Second example (Delivery Market), I didn't hand out my phone number and wanted to see how they'd react and received this in response:
Second example (Delivery Market), I didn't hand out my phone number and wanted to see how they'd react and received this in response:
Ok, they've improved: Now a kind suggestion to reach out via WhatsApp:
Along with the following PDF attachments:
Looks a bit more "legit" doesn't it? Squint harder, if you're someone who doesn't critically analyze these sort of documents.
If you have a hard time wondering what the hell is wrong with this, let me give you a couple of pointers:
- Passport-sized photo request: In what decade did we request a photo from a job applicant?
- Marital status: What does my status have anything to do with employment? Not to mention discriminatory???
Not to mention I feel bad that the signature by the "Supervisor of HR Department" looks like an edited/cropped version that was stolen from the previous victim.
Similarities
I was chuckling a bit when playing Spot-The-Difference myself. Here are a few:- Both claims to be representing an international logistics company
- Both request personal information prior to an interview
- Both offered $2,700 bi-weekly
- Both somehow re-directed potential victims to WhatsApp
- Both do not have an indication of their office or contact information anywhere.
- Both claims to offer a "training period" of 14 days
- Both fonts used in the email & communication seemed to have been copy+pasted from Notepad
Ending
The first time round, I admittedly had a bit more fun that I should have been. This is because they impersonated an existing company and knowing me, I like being as thorough as I can for more information to verify job postings.So, I went to the actual Panalpina website and looked at their existing Canadian offices and the listed addresses whilst sending an "I'm so innocent" question to the scammers:
I cannot believe the scammers were just THAT lazy, that they didn't even bother at least impersonating the company they presented themselves to be properly. Very much so insulted at that fact lol
So, decided to dig out more information to see how far they'd go and asked if the legit Panalpina's website was theirs.
Never heard from them since...
TL;DR: When in-doubt and the salary seems too-good-to-be-true, do your research!
