CHARLEROI, Pa. — According to the Bureau of Consumer Protection, employment scams are on the rise in 2018, and WPXI morning anchor Katherine Amenta discovered one just weeks old.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it must be bad," said John Vargo, who fell victim to a scam.
Vargo isn't naive, and said he knows that scammers are lurking everywhere. But even with his radar up, a new scam slipped past him. Amenta drove to Charleroi to find out what happened. There, he showed her piles of shipping labels and fraud notices from PayPal.
This started when Vargo logged on to job search engines. Random applications starting coming in over email, asking for his Social Security number.
"I've always been afraid of giving out my social because of all the stuff that goes on," said Vargo.
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He's right to be concerned. The Bureau of Consumer Protection has seen a surge in employment scams. The number of complaints submitted in 2018 has already surpassed the total number seen in 2017. Amenta sat down with state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to pinpoint when you should and should not give out your Social Security number.
"If you get the job, and you report there the first day, and they take you down to HR, and then they take your Social Security number, that makes sense. Giving that information out before you show up for work is a no-no," said Shapiro.
But Vargo's story has a twist. A scammer posing as a package re-shipping company called "Perfection Processing" reached out and asked for his Social Security number. Vargo wisely ignored it, and moved on. But then boxes started arriving for him to re-ship. Suddenly, he had a login to their website, and he was told he would be paid at the end of the month.
"We got some stuff from H&M, and there were two pairs of jeans," said Vargo.
Vargo knew it seemed fishy, but the damage was already done. He started getting fraud notices from PayPal. While at Vargo's house, Amenta used Google to look up the company, and complaints piled up fast. She also contacted the Better Business Bureau, and discovered they had just finished investigating Perfection Processing one week after she had talked to Vargo. The scammers are using people like Vargo to move around stolen products and open fraudulent lines of credit.
"As soon as I got the first, these first two packages, I knew that there was something up," said Vargo.
Even so, Vargo now is trying to scrub any association from bogus accounts set up in his name.
Another way to protect yourself is to always look closely at the alleged company's website. There were glaring errors and odd statements on Perfection Processing's website that John admits he didn't see.
If you are offered a job, it's always a good idea to look into the company behind that offer. You can check with the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania.
If you think you've been the victim of a scam, report the information to both the state Attorney General's office and also the Federal Trade Commission.