Be Alert…Scammers are Everywhere!

I was obviously SUPER excited to get a job as a proofreader for Simon and Schuster. It is, without a doubt, my dream job. I had actually considered applying with them and other publishing houses when I first got out of college, but I had no desire to relocate to New York City. Remote work eliminated that need. That said, something in my gut felt…wrong. It seemed too good to be true, I suppose.

So I started doing that thing I do.

I started to research.

I started to dig.

Now that I was no longer under time constraints (during each phase where I needed  to step away from Telegram I received regular notifications asking if I was still there) I had the time to look closer at everything. The email attachments were both on Simon and Schuster letterhead and were branded with the company logo. So was the “hiring manager’s” Telegram Messenger account.

But…

I looked closer at the email and realized that it came from career@simonschuster.com NOT career@simonANDschuster.com. I also noticed that the reply went to a gmail account, NOT the “simonschuster” account.

I went back to researching the people who had supposedly contacted me, but their real titles were WAY above what I had been told. The “recruiting manager” is actually the Vice President and General Manager. The “hiring manager” is actually a VP and Editor-in-Chief. Neither of those positions have the time or inclination to reach out to random peons from Indeed. The third name I was given; the one who “signed” my offer letter, is in publishing, just not at Simon and Schuster.

My next step was to go back to Indeed and find a Simon and Schuster job posting. The hiring manager told me in the text that I was being recruited for an open job posting, except there were no remote positions on Indeed for Simon and Schuster. There also were no remote job listings on the Simon and Schuster website either. Nothing, y’all. No jobs whatsoever to match what I had supposedly been recruited for.

At this point, I don’t just feel uneasy. Now I’m also spitting mad. I was scheduled for an “appointment” to meet with the “hiring manager” at 8:00am this morning. So I got Hubs out the door for work, dropped LittleBit at school, and prepared for war.

When I reported in for my “training” on the messenger app, I immediately started asking questions. Or rather, I started sharing what I had figured out. I had multiple open tabs on my computer, one for each of the people I had been told I was in contact with, one for Indeed, one for Simon and Schuster, and one for my email. It didn’t take long at all for the composure of the person I was messaging to start slipping..along with their grammar. Their responses, which had been coming through very quickly, took longer and longer. Lots of “typing…” at the top of the app, with no messages appearing.

They then tried to speed up the process again, telling me that all of my questions would be answered when I “really got to work.” I requested a quick Zoom or FaceTime call so that I could verify the identity of the person that I was speaking to. They completely ignored my request and pivoted to telling me that there would be weekly Zoom trainings. They then stated that they would be sending me a check via email to set up my home office. I would be required to deposit the check and then purchase a MacBook Pro and all of the other “goodies” from their “trusted vendors.”

Yeah. No.

At that point, I had toyed with them long enough. I informed them that they would not be sending anything else to my email and if they did I would be contacting the cyber crime unit. They very quickly told me, and I quote, that they “would not force me to do anything that I didn’t want to do,” that my “employment had been terminated,” and that they wished me well. I had barely digested that response when the ENTIRE conversation disappeared. I still have some screen shots, but the majority just *poofed* away into the ether.

Y’all.

Y’ALL.

Thank God I dug in and checked further before giving away any truly sensitive information or depositing any checks they might have sent.

After taking a little bit of time to process what had happened (there may or may not have been tears) I decided to contact the author that I had supposedly applied with. I found her page on Facebook and contacted her via Messenger. I let her know that I wanted to touch base, that I had applied to her posting on Indeed, and needed to know if it was a legitimate job because I had been approached by someone unscrupulous offering the same opportunity. She graciously and quickly responded and apologized profusely because her account had been hacked. She never posted a proofreader job. She told me that she had spent the last several days trying to get the job posting removed, closing her Indeed account and dealing with others, like me, who had been scammed because of it. My heart goes out to her too.

At least now I know for sure how they got me. A legitimate looking job post, fraudulently uploaded to Indeed, and used to mine data. Damn.

Y’all, I feel incredibly stupid and embarrassed right now, but I’m sharing this because if it could happen to me, the daughter of a fed who has been raised to be skeptical and suspicious, it could happen to anyone. Everything looked incredibly legit and aboveboard. They used the names of real people, who really work at Simon and Schuster and can really be found online. After digging around the company website I believe that these scammers targeted them because there are no clear avenues to contact them with concerns or complaints. 

Y’all, this was not some basic, cheesy phishing scheme. This was a well planned out, two-fold attack. After speaking with the author, I went back to report the job post on Indeed as fraudulent. I was able to find it by name in the “Applied” section of my account, but the posting had already been removed. Unfortunately, when I got there, it showed that over 100 people had applied before it was removed. If even a quarter of them took the bait and followed through all the way to the end? These scammers will make out like kings.

I have since spoken to both my bank and the police. I wanted to make sure that I was covered should anything happen since they have my driver’s license and the name of my financial institution. Both told me that I was very lucky to have caught on to their scheme and to have ended it when I did. The woman at the bank said that usually she has to deal with the aftermath when people have deposited the check and/or given the scammers access for direct deposit. At this point, they can’t access anything because I never shared an account number, routing number, or my social security number. According to the police officer I spoke to, in this day and age driver’s license information, including the license number, is basically public record. He reiterated what the woman at the bank said, and informed me that I should be in the clear because scam artists want an easy mark. As soon as you fight back or call them on their shenanigans, they write you off.

Thank God.

Y’all, be careful who you trust. There are really bad people out there preying on anyone they can…and they’re getting smarter.

If you or someone you know has been caught in a similar online scam, you can contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov to file a complaint. You can also contact the Federal Trade Commission at 202-326-2222.

Stay safe, and remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Disclaimer:  The Simon and Schuster Publishing Company is totally blameless in all of this. They were the unfortunate front being used by some very, VERY bad people. For legal reasons, I want it to be clear that I know that the company was not involved in this in ANY way. Thank you.