CREMONA – The last frontier of online scams once again runs on smartphones, and in particular on messaging, through all commonly used channels, starting with WhatsApp. This time we don’t play with feelings (see the hateful scam of the fake accident that happened to the son feared by elderly parents, who were asked for a large sum of money by a so-called lawyer), but with the need to find a job.
The message, packaged to entice the victim, presents some peculiar characteristics, starting with these two: the wide age range of the recipients to whom it is directed, a useful economic gain for small expenses. On closer inspection, however, some essential elements of authentic communication are missing. For example, the name of the company with the open position is not indicated; at the same time, linguistic deficiencies emerge from those lines, including some typos.
This is the ‘indicted’ text: ‘HI! You have been selected for a part-time or full-time online job. The work is very simple, there is no time or place limit and it can be done at home. The working age range is from 23 to 60 years. The hourly wage varies from 30 to 500 euros. The first 30 people will immediately receive 8 euros. To confirm your participation, click on the following link to contact customer service. This is a classic ‘phishing’ method which aims to acquire personal data to be used to carry out crimes of various kinds. Obviously the first thing to do for the recipients of these messages is not to give any credence to the message and, above all, not to enter the proposed path with a ‘click’ which could cost very dearly.
As stated on the official Randstad website, a Dutch multinational that deals with the search, selection and training of human resources, «increasingly precise and difficult to identify, fake job advertisements online are spreading like wildfire, thanks to the market crisis and the lack of opportunities . Sometimes they are scams that aim at money laundering or even attempts at sexual abuse cleverly hidden behind the request for ‘personal secretariats'”.
