My daughter was recently laid off from her lab job at her university; she applied for multiple jobs and did not receive any callbacks (restaurants, theme parks, stores, etc.) She came home to our town to catch-up on medical and dental appointments and to try to find employment here; no such luck as it was too late in the season. Then, she found an “interesting” job post on her university’s career website and applied, unbeknownst to us.
Yesterday, she received a “package” at our personal home address. Normally, she tells us about packages, letters, etc. This time she didn’t. In it was a $2300 check from a bank in Virginia. She called and found that the company and check were “legit”. But something didn’t sound “right”, so she finally “fessed” up to us late last night.
I read the “directions” from the email, that she received from the “job” coordinator, indicating that she needed to directly deposit this check into her “personal” ATM account. If no ATM was available, then she would have to go in to the teller.
She was directed to buy “reloadit” cards at a local grocery store, and spend $500 dollars per card, then email the numbers on the back of each card to the “employer” who is in Sweden. She was told to pay “herself” from the check provided.
This screams of scam to me. I told her not to go near her ATM with this. My pressing concern is that I’m afraid she’s already given out too much information and included her resume to this “company” when she “applied”. I’m extremely concerned about identity theft.
Anyone else familiar with this? I plan on informing her university about the job. What else can we do???