A former colleague of mine, we’ll call him Mitch, received a call from a potential employer less than a week after submitting his application through Monster.com. It was a typical call from the company’s human resources department, or so he thought.
He spoke with an “Angie” and scheduled his interview for Thursday at 9AM with a “Chris Johnson.” She provided Mitch with directions to their address along with their suite number.
Fraudulent Interview
Thursday morning came and Mitch was excited to begin the process of a career change. He was interviewing with a new division of a much larger company. We verified that this division did exist and that there was an opening for the position posted on their official website. What we did notice was that the address Angie provided Mitch with was not the same as the larger parent company. He disregarded this and assumed that this new division was simply housed not too far from the parent company at a separate location.
The Interview
I received a call from Mitch at 8:50, just before he was scheduled to be at his interview. “Can you verify this address,” he asked. I researched around Google for 10 minutes and couldn’t find any evidence that this company did business out of the address Angie provided. In fact, the only business that was at this location was an Insurance Agency. Mitch walked into the Insurance Agency and asked the receptionist if a Chris Johnson worked there, or if he even had an interview scheduled. She claimed that they never heard of a “Chris Johnson” and that she had no interviews scheduled that day. There were some people filling out paperwork in the lobby, but surely were not dressed for a professional interview.
The story became even more bizarre when Mitch reached out to the actual company when he returned to his car. They claimed that not only does ‘Chris’ or ‘Angie’ not work for them either, but they also had no interviews scheduled for that day.
Facts:
– Mitch applied for Company A through Monster.com.
– Mitch received a call from “Angie” to schedule an interview with Company A’s “Chris Johnson” (or so he thought).
– The address provided by Company A was to an Insurance Agency and not the real Company A’s location.
– Upon arrival, the Insurance Agency, along with the REAL Company A, had never heard of “Chris Johnson” or the HR Representative “Angie,” nor had any scheduled interviews.
fraud1
So What Happened?
It’s hard to tell. Someone knew that Mitch applied to Company A as well as the exact position he applied for. So either:
A. The company copy and pasted an identical job ad on Monster.com with a different e-mail address that directed to their company.
B. Someone at the REAL Company A forwarded Mitch’s resume on to this other company.
Both Scenarios still make no since because both companies denied accountability for scheduling Mitch’s interview. So was someone simply just trying to waste Mitch’s time?
What Can You Do?
– Verify the interview location, company, and individuals 24 hours before the interview.
– Attempt to locate these individuals on either LinkedIn or through the company’s website.
– Be sure to ask for a confirmation e-mail from the HR Representative setting up the interview.
– Directly apply through the company’s website opposed to job search engines. Not only does this minimize the risk of this same situation happening to you, but sometimes job search engines repost old positions even after they’ve been filled and/or removed from the company’s website. Applying through their website will guarantee that the position is open and that your information is landing in the right hands.
If you know anyone who’s currently interviewing in the Grand Rapids area, be sure to share this article with them.
I will attempt to keep you updated in the comment section of any further information regarding this situation. To this date we still have no idea who “Angie” or “Chris Johnson” is. The number that originally contacted Mitch has yet to pick up or return any of his calls. He has also provided Company A with the contact and names of the fraudulent company posing as them. He has yet to hear back from them regarding their efforts to solve this issue.