Each week, FP Weekly members receive a practical and cutting-edge checklist of issues to consider, action steps to take, and goals to accomplish to ensure you remain on the top of your game when it comes to workplace relations and employment law compliance. This week we provide you a checklist of items to consider when it comes to avoiding the new breed of workplace scams that have blossomed given the rise of remote and hybrid work over the last few years.
Understanding the New Trends
Workplace scams have been around long before work-from-home became a popular trend, but they have certainly accelerated in the last three years. The very nature of WFH or hybrid work leads to particular situations and loopholes that can be exploited by unscrupulous parties looking to take advantage of the unique conditions at play. Given this shift in the modern workplace, there are four specific cons that have exploded of late that you should familiarize yourself with if your business has adopted the WFH model in whole or in part.
Employers Getting Scammed By Fake Applicants
The most troubling new scam was recently called out by the FBI. According to federal criminal authorities, scammers are using a combination of deepfakes* and stolen Personally Identifiable Information (PII) when applying for a variety of remote work and work-at-home positions. If that person gets hired under a false identity, they will have security clearance to obtain company logins, passwords, accounts, and other sources of data – allowing them free access to sensitive company and third-party information. Then, they can exploit this information in countless ways, each more damaging than the next.
*For those unfamiliar, deepfake technology allows users to present a manipulated video, image, or recording that is so convincing it permits the scammer to misrepresent themselves as another person. You can read more about it here.
Employers Getting Scammed By Overemployed Workers
Are your employees secretly juggling multiple full-time jobs? We’ve seen the rise of applicants seeking to work in a full-time remote role without telling their prospective employer that they already have full-time jobs with other organizations – sometimes 10 or more. While you may not care if your remote workers hold multiple positions, it becomes a problem if applicants forge their resumes to look underqualified (or to hide other jobs they hold) and then put in the least amount of work possible hoping to slide by and collect paychecks for as long as they can. This can be especially problematic in industries with worker shortages – where employers may be willing to tolerate subpar work for longer periods of time. It can also be troublesome if your employees conduct work for organizations in direct conflict with your own.
Applicants Getting Scammed By Fake Employers
Scams can be initiated from the “employer” side, too. In fact, your newsfeed is probably replete with stories of applicants being duped by fake companies. The Wall Street Journal, for example, just reported that scammers are targeting laid-off tech workers given the high number of RIFs and the popularity of remote work in that field. Or you may even know of someone who was going through the interview process – or perhaps was even “hired” – before realizing they were being scammed.
The Federal Trade Commission reported just how big of a problem this has become. The number of reported job scams nearly tripled to 104,000 in recent years, causing workers to lose more than $200 million last year alone.
The scenarios usually start the same – an applicant (oftentimes a tech-savvy professional) believes they are going through a standard remote work application process, sometimes even receiving a job offer. Sometimes the applicant is contacted by someone purporting to be a recruiting representative from an established company, but many times the applicant falls for a fake job listing found on LinkedIn or elsewhere.
They might turn over personal information along the way – like SSNs or bank account information for direct deposit purposes – which is then exploited for nefarious purposes by the criminals running the scam. Or the company might ask them to buy electronic equipment they’ll need for the job (laptops, cell phone, external hard drives, printers, etc.) and tell them to send the equipment to the “company” for “formatting.” The scammers may promise reimbursement, or sometimes even sending a check that will only be reported as fake days or weeks after it is deposited.
Of course, this equipment actually lands in the hands of scammers. Meanwhile, several days have gone by before the applicant or new hire realizes they have been compromised — and now they’re out hundreds or thousands of dollars and nowhere closer to landing their dream remote job.
Employees Getting Scammed By Fake Coworkers
Many employers are already familiar with the tried-and-true scam that leads unsuspecting workers to purchase gift cards or wire money to off-shore accounts for someone they believe to be a coworker – often a superior – but is actually a criminal. These so-called “spearfishing” schemes have been around for quite some time, preying on a sense of urgency and the perceived power imbalance in the request (administrative personnel are much more likely to quickly respond when they believe the CEO is asking them to complete an emergency request).
But these scams have taken on a new prominence given the uptick in remote work arrangements. The use of deepfakes allows scammers to use the voice of a coworker – or even their likeness in a video communication – to trick employees into fulfilling requests. And since the workers are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, it’s harder to verify the validity of the request.
Your Checklist to Avoid the Modern Scam
