Lethbridge Police Station (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

LPS issues warning on employment scams

Mar 24, 2021 | 9:29 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge Police are shining the light on employment scams.

March is Fraud Prevention Month and LPS notes that over the past year, the need to find and apply for jobs has increased due to COVID-19.

With that, they say fraudsters have taken advantage of those attempting to find legitimate work online or obtain loans from an online company to help pay their bills between jobs.

Employment scams can come in a variety of forms, like requesting a victim to forward funds to a business, convert funds into Bitcoin, send cheques to the business, or having the victim provide their own funds.

In 2020, LPS took in a dozen employment scam reports, with victims suffering around $27,000 in total losses. There was one unsuccessful scam, in which a would-be-victim employed as a ‘collector’ of loans received a cheque for a supposed loan payment of $92,000 through the mail.

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LPS stated that the individual had not started any collection in that amount, and they were not expecting a cheque, so they rightly believed it to be a case of fraud.

Police say the majority of employment scams saw the victim accept a form of payment before being asked to transfer it to another account of convert the funds to Bitcoin. In the end, the cheque they got would bounce, leaving the victim out of funds.

Other victims were asked to provide banking and personal information, for the stated purposes of direct deposit of wages or ‘HR records’. That information could be collected and then sold to commit more fraudulent activity with the victim’s identification.

LPS is recommending that before anyone accepts a job from an unfamiliar company, they should do their research to determine if the job they’re accepting is from a legitimate business. Additionally, any company that requests a ‘new hire’ to forward company/customer funds to another bank account or have them converted into Bitcoin, is a scam.

“Most companies have their own financial departments and would never request an employee to do the banking for the business or for customers,” LPS stated in a release.

“A prime example of this is the ‘secret shopper’ scam, where a victim is sent to local businesses to buy products and assess customer service. They are sent what appears to be an overpayment to cover the cost of purchase, and then advised to keep the items purchased but send the remaining funds back to the business through another account or Bitcoin.”

In 2020, LPS only responded to “a couple” of loan scams within the city area. In general, the victim is verbally informed of a loan amount they have been approved for and is asked to pay a minimum down payment, which is usually 10 per cent. Once the scammer has gotten that down payment, they ask for further fees from the victim, who never does receive the loan.

“Before sending any funds to an online company, police encourage the proper research to determine if the business is legitimate and if so, whether there’s been any fraudulent activity reported or complaints made about the company,” stated the LPS.

Police say applying for loans through regular means like a local bank or loan company is always advisable.