PHOENIX — Needing a job and searching online, Melissa found one she liked. It was remote work supposedly with a company called Equans ANZ out of Australia.
"I looked them up on the internet and they do have a website," Melissa says.
It would be a remote administrative job paying a big $72,000 a year.
An audio-only Skype interview followed and suddenly, Melissa had great news from the company.
" I was hired," Melissa says.
The supposed employer sent her a check for nearly $5,000.
They told Melissa to keep $300 for her trouble and send the rest to a company vendor who would set up her office.
"Buy the equipment, laptop and everything so I could work from home," she says.
But like many people caught up in it, she missed some of the warning signs it was not a real job.
Melissa was being lured into a very common scam.
The government says during just the first few months of last year, Americans lost $68 million to job scams.
And the Let Joe Know team is seeing many similar complaints now.
In Melissa's case, there were several scam clues that become obvious if you can step back from the situation and consider them.
She was hired without an in-depth interview or even being seen since the Skype interview had the video off.
The "employer" sent a nearly $5,000 check upfront. The check did not have the company name on it.
And why wouldn't the employer pay their vendor directly instead of Melissa?
But the biggest warning sign was when Melissa was instructed to use that $5,000 check to buy U.S. Postal money orders and pay the vendor with those.
Anytime you're told to pay with gift cards or money orders, it's a big scam warning.
Melissa bought $4,500 worth and sent the money orders to an address as instructed.
She says she did it while keeping a close eye on her bank account.
"I didn't get suspicious because the check they sent to me showed up in my bank as available funds," she says.
The check does show up as deposited, and part of her Chase account balance.
Because of that assurance, Melissa says she felt comfortable using her money from a different bank account to pay for those money orders.
But the check she received also says it was "currently being reviewed" and "we'll let you know when the funds are available."
"Always have that warning in the back of your head, you know this check could always come back," says Christian Romero.
Romero is a Chase Phoenix Community Manager.
He says just being deposited doesn't mean the check is good. You must get assurances before counting on that money.
Chase says it took six days to determine if the check Melissa received was a fake. It was.
She lost the nearly $5,000 she sent away.
"It's just numbing... I don't have any income and I need it to survive," Melissa says.
Equans ANZ is a legitimate company.
Their business name was taken and used by these scammers to add legitimacy.
We reached out to Equans, the US Postal Service, and Chase Bank.
Only Chase got back to us by our deadline saying they investigated but could not get the funds back for Melissa.
We are still trying to work with the USPS.
If you're involved with a fraud that uses the Postal Service, you can file a complaint here.
The Federal Trade Commission has advice on avoiding scams while searching for a job. You can also report a scam here as Melissa did.
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