Tips to identify an online scammer.

I have written about online scams a few times. This scam actually targets writers so you may want to pay attention to this one.

An agency created by Congress called the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation stated to safeguard your personal information.

“Before providing any personal information, such as your date of birth, Social Security number, account numbers, and passwords, be sure the website is secure.”

Initially, it may seem harmless to share your personal information when applying for a job. Usually, most jobs will not ask you to share this information unless the company actually hired you.

In 2020, there were 1.4 million reports of fraud according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Thieves want your personal identity so they can commit crimes using your information. A message you receive online could be the first step to gathering more information about you.

One piece of information only leads to more than they can use against you. Your social security number, birthday, address, phone number, and so on. Each little piece of information they gather they can use to create a fake account or even blackmail you.

The Twitter scam you need to be aware of

I accepted a friend request recently from an account that seemed harmless. The person had shared tweets over the past few months and they used a name.

I accepted the account and thought little of it. Within a few weeks, the person sent me an email asking if I was looking for a side gig writing.

Naturally, I said yes. Previously I had received job offers over Twitter so I thought little about this one.

The account was Lucas Bush with the user name lucasourceall12. The profile image was a picture of a cat.

As soon as I accepted the friend request, the person asked if I was open to a writing gig. From there the person sent me the Energy Citizens website and said the company was paying writers $500 an article.

He said the topics ranged from mental health, environmental, history, oil and gas, and renewable energy. These weren’t my strong points but I could write a little on some of the topics.

The person said I should join a Telegram channel for a workshop. I didn’t think too much of this but kept an open eye on anything that didn’t make sense. I have had my run-ins with online scammers.

After joining the Telegram group, I noticed an icon of a bear with flowers waving. I thought this was odd for a company with this image but was curious about the job.

The Vice President of Human Resources, Christopher Curia, introduced himself. From there he asked me several questions which made me think this was a legit job offer.

Some of the questions were:

• What makes good content?
• What software tools do you typically use?
• How quickly can you learn to use a new tool?
• Who were your three most recent employers?

He thanked me and said I would hear from the Operations Officer in the next few days about the writing task.

A few days passed, and I received a message from Matthew Ramsey. We worked out a good time for the initial presentation he was holding.

Ramsey sent me a word document of upcoming holidays and pay. The document was typed on a Word document and it didn’t look very formal at all.

Then he sent me an employee form to fill out which asked for my name, address, phone number, social security number, and some references.

The form looked legitimate, but I was still unsure about sending him the form over Telegram. At this point, we had not done any communication through email, phone, or Zoom.

Ramsey asked to connect with him the next day for another presentation. After I filled out the form, he asked me if I filled it out. Since I wasn’t sure about the writing job, I asked him to call me since I had some questions.

I was skeptical about the job offer and wanted to talk to this person. He avoided calling me and said he was on the phone with someone.

I told him to call me when he was done. He has not responded to my message or called me and it has been three days.

Five obvious signs the person is a scammer

1. The person operates on Telegram, or a messaging app to communicate with you.

2. The person refuses to call you on the phone.

3. When you search for the person on LinkedIn or the company’s website, the person’s name does not appear. Most professional people are on LinkedIn and have an account. Even their profile page can be fake since some people create fake accounts and then delete it shortly after.

4. When the person says there will be a presentation, they don’t show you a presentation.

5. The scammer uses words that don’t sound normal. One misspelling is okay. But if there are multiple misspellings or unusual words, then this should make you cautious if this person is who they say they are. Some people who are not from the United States may use the word kindly starting off a sentence.

All of the names used in the article are names that scammers used. Eventually, the same person could change their name but I suspect they will use similar tactics to get your personal information.

Final thoughts

In the digital world, you need to practice safety. Even though a person will not rob you face to face, they can do the same thing and rob you over your electronic device.

Always question the person and don’t take their information as the truth. Anyone can lie or deceive you and they will.

These people have done this before since this industry has scammed people out of millions of dollars a year. You don’t want to be part of that group.

Were you ever scammed online?