Alabama's Morning News with JT
Erin Real tells us about scams and education levels of cities
The Decono Music and Spirits Festival returns to Centennial Park Saturday, August 3rd from 2 to 10 p.m. And it's free! Live music from the Warren Treaty! Chris Daniels and the Kings is Callie and More. Enjoy a spirits competition. Kidzone and fireworks presented by Oxy and the City of Decono. Admission and parking are free. The Decono Music and Spirits Festival brought to you by Breckenridge Brewery and City of Decono. Go to thecityofdecono.com for more information. We are always following these scams that are affecting everybody, and the latest scams are job scams. There's been a huge surge of phony job scams. What are they and how can you make sure you're not a victim of them? Some of these jobs are... it's usually a situation of they're too good to be true. It's an opportunity to go work to make an enormous amount of money with a really easy schedule, usually a work-from-home situation. And you don't have to... you don't have to try that hard because, you know, it's easy. Well, especially easy because it's a scam. So they hook you up with... here's the information to sign up for your direct deposit. Make sure you give us a routing number in your credit card number in your bank number. And then for some reason the money doesn't come in. In fact, it goes in the other direction. These are the kind of scams that a lot of people are getting duped into. And the... what they always say is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A lot of times you get these calls from, you know, another country. And you can always tell... if right before it connects, like there's this weird silence and then like... there's like a room full of people answering with strange accents in the background. And you're always like, "Oh, I see what's happening. This is probably a scam call." Joining me to talk about this more is Aaron Real. Aaron, welcome to the show. Oh, thank you for having me. So what are some of these scams... we were talking about these job scams. What are some of the scams that are coming about? So young people looking for a job, old people, anyone in between who's looking for a job and going to a reputable job site like a LinkedIn might fall victim to these because the thieves, they generally pose as recruiters. They post fake job listings to lure in the applicants. And the ultimate goal is to steal valuable information during the quote-unquote interview process. So they want driver's license. They want social security number. They want bank account details. They're going to ask you to fill all this out up front for employment paperwork. You don't want people to live in fear, but know that generally very little personal information is needed about you if you are interviewing. They need your email, your telephone number, maybe your address, but not always. Not much is needed. And then also, if you suspect anything is awry, you can always do your own independent verification. Find out if this company really exists, if they're hiring, and also just be wary. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If it's like 100% remote work, very few skills required and a huge salary that that just isn't realistic. And don't forget a big expense account too. Aaron, the, I guess when we expect for you to have to put your social security number in is after the interview, after you've been offered the job, you've accepted and now you're filling out the stuff for the IRS, but you don't pull that stuff out just to see your employer to go for the interview. No, never, never, never, never, and very infrequently, no, never. Will an employer ask you to buy equipment or pay for training and then reimburse you? That's not a thing. Like, don't do that. That's a big red flag. And then also, be wary if you didn't initiate contact with the perspective employer. If there's a recruiter, you know, if they reach out to you as opposed to the other way around, again, limit it, limit personal information. And also, if they're conducting the interview, completely via text message or email, you know, even a phone call is not a guarantee of safety, but this is a result of the pandemic. We went so much online. So many people were hired via Zoom remotely, but that is not the case. That is not, that was a blip. Generally, you're going to see these people in person before you get the job. Well, I guess if they say, before we begin this interview, we need you to go down to Walgreens and get some gift cards. That's a dead giveaway that they're up to no good. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That is not a thing. Do not call for that. Aaron Rial, thank you so much for joining us this morning on Alabama's Morning News. Yes, I will look out for those scams as well, because you're right there out there. And there's a lot of people who fall for them. And sometimes it's as simple as you just clicked on something, you go down a rabbit hole. And before you know it, they've got information and they're building a portfolio. They might not even need all the information right now, but they're, they're just getting a little bit of information, a little bit of time until eventually they have enough, and then they can steal your, you steal your identity, steal your credit card numbers, steal something, and then steal money from you. And it is incredibly difficult to get it back because it turns out they're in another country, and you can't track these people. I would really like to see for all of our wars on terror, I would love for us to have a tour, a war on these scammers because they drive me crazy. If nothing else, with just the phone calls. The Dakono Music and Spirits Festival returns to Centennial Park Saturday, August 3rd from 2 to 10 p.m. And it's free live music from the Warren Treaty. Chris Daniels and the Kings is Cally and More. Enjoy a spirits competition. Kidzone and fireworks presented by Oxy and the City of Dakono. Admission and parking are free. The Dakono Music and Spirits Festival brought to you by Breckenridge Brewery and City of Dakono. Go to the city of Dakono.com for more information.