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Home My WebLink AboutRE_ PSA Employment Fraud.msgThis is great – thank you! Cecilia Arellano City of Diamond Bar | Public Information Coordinator t 909 839-7056 | carellano@diamondbarca.gov <mailto:carellano@diamondbarca.gov> From: Scheller, Aaron D. <ADSchell@lasd.org> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2023 7:38 AM To: Cecilia Arellano <CArellano@DiamondBarCA.Gov> Subject: [Possible SPAM: Barracuda] PSA Employment Fraud Importance: Low CAUTION: This message originated outside of our City of Diamond Bar network. CAUTION: This email originated from outside your organization. Exercise caution when opening attachments or clicking links, especially from unknown senders. The Employment Scam When you think it’s too good to be true, you’re probably right! Everyone wants to be able to earn as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. Criminals know this and will take advantage of the desires to make a profit without the toils of the 9 to 5 job. Sometimes the criminals will befriend us over social media or emails and act as if they have our best interest in mind, but as many victims have found, you can’t trust everyone you meet online. There are many types of internet frauds such as phishing scams, data breaches, denial of services, malicious malware, ransomware, and targeted business takeovers. However, instead of trying to get into the details of all of them, I want to bring it back to what is occurring in your local community. I will be writing about several different scams, but for this blog, I want to talk about what I call the employment scam. I frequently see reports where a scammer will either befriend someone online or act as an employment opportunity through email or links generated as ads. The first common trend amongst these fraudulent crimes is they are all done online. The victims are usually contacted through social media or through fraudulent emails. Sites or people who appear to be legitimate but after it’s all said and done, were not what they seemed to be. The scammers also portray themselves as the same ethnicity as the victim’s and speak the same language as the victim, but because they never actually meet, it’s impossible to say who the suspects are. I have compiled reports with actual reports taken here from the city of Diamond Bar of residents (names and addresses excluded) who have been falsely taken advantage of. I hope by hearing these examples it might better prepare you for any future attempts at fraud. The first situation involved a resident who received an email from someone who claimed to be a school professor and asked the victim if she was interested in a job. The victim said she did want a job and the scammer said they were going to send her money to buy items for the new job. The victim received 3 checks in the mail for a total of $6940 which she deposited into her personal bank account. The scammer instructed the victim that she sent the wrong amount of money and needed her to repay using the Zelle App. The victim promptly returned the money. A few days later her bank called and notified her that the three checks she had deposited from the scammer were fake. When the victim tried to contact the scammer, the email no longer existed and the Zelle account had been closed. Another example is a resident who received an email for a job instructed him to fill out hiring documents on-line. Once the victim filled out the information, he was told he would be receiving a $3500 check via the mail. He was instructed to deposit the check and to spend up to $1000 for the business start-up. He was instructed to send $2500 in cash back to him at a PO Box. The victim did as he was told and was later notified by the bank that the checks were fake. The secret shopper scam is common as well. This occurs when you receive an email or click on a link which leads you to possible employment as a secret shopper. You will be prompted to fill out a quick questionnaire and provide an email and phone number. Someone will email or call you to explain that they are an employee of a business which does secret shopping to evaluate a store’s performance. They will send you a check and direct you to deposit into your bank account and promptly complete the secret shopper evaluation by shopping and filling out an evaluation of the store. I have seen cases where the resident will receive a check for $3500 and asked to spend approximately $500 dollars in the store. They are asked to send back a check for $2000 dollars to the employer and keep the remaining $1000 dollars as the payment for their employment as a secret shopper. How awesome is that a thousand dollars for one hour of shopping. That’s until they find out the original $3500 check was fraudulent, and the $2000 check has been cashed by the scammers. In the three examples I have given you can see a trend. It starts by email or link where a resident might see potential for making quick money by someone who may be offering them a job. The scammer will send an overage in money and request the resident to deposit the check and mail back a personal check for the difference in the amount. The residents only find out after the fact the checks are fraudulent and the scammer has already cashed their personal check, stealing their money. What can you do? Don’t feel bad if this has happened to you because this has happened to thousands of people. If you see an email for job opportunities, I suggest you do not open any links from someone you cannot verify. Most of the time you can read the sender’s email and see that the sender will have a link not consistent with an employer of a business. It will be made of various random numbers and letters, this is because once someone has been scammed, they will delete the email and will make up a new one. If you do receive a check from a company and decide to deposit it, wait until it is verified that the check is real, and the money is in fact in your account. Then you can decide whether you want or trust the business, you can decide if you want to move forward. But before you go further, take time to verify the company is real. Use the better business bureau website to see if the company exists. Also, look up the business and find a corporate business number and call to verify the employment is real. I hope this blog will help you are not a victim of the employment fraud. Aaron Scheller | Special Projects Deputy Los Angeles County Sheriff |　City of Diamond Bar 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765 909.348.8334 / 909.348.8316 Fax adschell@lasd.org <mailto:Faxadschell@lasd.org> ascheller@diamondbarCA.gov <mailto:lasd.orgascheller@diamondbarCA.gov> zAxNTYzYmE4&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles&hl=en&es=0> RSVP for asantos@diamondbarca.gov <mailto:asantos@diamondbarca.gov> for all events in this series <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=RESPOND&eid=MnU4b21lamxodWNhbTVjZWd2djJocWZlNzhfUjIwMjIwNDI4VDE3MDAwMCBhc2FudG9zQGRpYW1vbmRiYXJjYS5nb3Y&rst=1&tok=MjAjc3BlZGVyc2VuQHNndmNvZy5vcmc2NT Y3ODk3NzUxMDg4MTFhMTg2YzE4NTA3ZTY4MzY1YzAxNTYzYmE4&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles&hl=en&es=0> Yes <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=RESPOND&eid=MnU4b21lamxodWNhbTVjZWd2djJocWZlNzhfUjIwMjIwNDI4VDE3MDAwMCBhc2FudG9zQGRpYW1vbmRiYXJjYS5nb3Y&rst=2&tok=MjAjc3BlZGVyc2VuQHNndmNvZy5vcmc2NT Y3ODk3NzUxMDg4MTFhMTg2YzE4NTA3ZTY4MzY1YzAxNTYzYmE4&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles&hl=en&es=0> No <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=RESPOND&eid=MnU4b21lamxodWNhbTVjZWd2djJocWZlNzhfUjIwMjIwNDI4VDE3MDAwMCBhc2FudG9zQGRpYW1vbmRiYXJjYS5nb3Y&rst=3&tok=MjAjc3BlZGVyc2VuQHNndmNvZy5vcmc2NT Y3ODk3NzUxMDg4MTFhMTg2YzE4NTA3ZTY4MzY1YzAxNTYzYmE4&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles&hl=en&es=0> Maybe <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=MnU4b21lamxodWNhbTVjZWd2djJocWZlNzhfUjIwMjIwNDI4VDE3MDAwMCBhc2FudG9zQGRpYW1vbmRiYXJjYS5nb3Y&tok=MjAjc3BlZGVyc2VuQHNndmNvZy5vcmc2NTY3ODk3NzU xMDg4MTFhMTg2YzE4NTA3ZTY4MzY1YzAxNTYzYmE4&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles&hl=en&es=0> More options Invitation from Google Calendar <https://calendar.google.com/calendar/> You are receiving this email because you are an attendee on the event. 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