Scam job offer
Discussion
One of my friends popped round yesterday asking me to have a look at a contract he'd been sent for a job he's been offered.
Apparently he'd stuck his CV up on a job board and received an email about a data entry job. Just as a bit of background he's never done any data entry before, he currently drives a class 2 delivery truck, has previously been a postman and prior to that worked for the local authority in a home for problem kids. So nothing wrong with his work history, but none of it heavy on keyboard and IT skills.
So the process to get to the job offer was as follows:
1) They weren't able to conduct a face to face interview, because "We would usually interview face to face first before offering you a job and at bare minimum we would have an in depth talk with you. However people dropped out at the last minute and we do not have time to travel back over until the new office actually opens. Plus as this is a fairly easy job with full training we feel that based from your CV we found on the job boards you would in fact be suitable for this role and you can of course call or email us with any questions."
2) So they appeared happy to make their decision once they'd conducted a telephone interview based on them being confident he can do the job from his CV. But then "Thank you for booking in for the telephone interview, however we were unable to carry this out as planned as we are just too busy." So telephone interview never happened, but they were happy to offer job based on his CV.
3) Salary offered was about £13.50 p/hr which for a basic data entry job requiring no experience sounds very high to me, and unusually was quoted in the latter as net salary after tax and NI. I've never seen anything other than gross income in an offer letter.
4) Add to that 28 days holiday plus bank holidays, a 6% of salary pension contribution, plus private healthcare for the employee and their spouse. Sounds good doesn't it, not far off £35k gross for a data entry assistant with no experience required.
5) He has a building address for their new office in Leicester but no unit number as "We are waiting to be allocated a unit number from the estate agent so you will get the full address nearer the starting time. This should be any day as the plan is to move next week."
6) He has a telephone number to call with questions but "It is usually best to email me as we are extremely busy arranging the new offices, so please only call if it is urgent to avoid blocking up the lines."
So with all this in mind he is then asked to provide his NI number and complete a financial crimes FC1 check. There is a link to a site (which looks legitimate) but they can't tell him how much it will cost, but state they will reimburse him in his 1st weeks salary. Apparently he needs to complete the check then grant his new employer access to this report, which I'm assuming is what the scam is.
My question is where should I be reporting this, as I haven't heard of it before?
Anybody else come across similar?
I haven't named the companies involved just in case they are legitimate and merely being used to cover the actual scam.
Edit - I've just called the number listed on the website and on the offer letter, 'strangely' on their voice recording they have an option to route through to the person who signed the offer letter, but if you choose any of the other 3 options you just hold indefinitely "waiting for the next available agent".
So obviously not legitimate in any way www.digitalseo.net
I'm also increasingly dubious about www.smartdisclosures.com who were linked to do the financial check, no telephone number listed for contact, and social media links just take you to LI and Twitter homepages rather than the specific company pages I would expect to find.
Apparently he'd stuck his CV up on a job board and received an email about a data entry job. Just as a bit of background he's never done any data entry before, he currently drives a class 2 delivery truck, has previously been a postman and prior to that worked for the local authority in a home for problem kids. So nothing wrong with his work history, but none of it heavy on keyboard and IT skills.
So the process to get to the job offer was as follows:
1) They weren't able to conduct a face to face interview, because "We would usually interview face to face first before offering you a job and at bare minimum we would have an in depth talk with you. However people dropped out at the last minute and we do not have time to travel back over until the new office actually opens. Plus as this is a fairly easy job with full training we feel that based from your CV we found on the job boards you would in fact be suitable for this role and you can of course call or email us with any questions."
2) So they appeared happy to make their decision once they'd conducted a telephone interview based on them being confident he can do the job from his CV. But then "Thank you for booking in for the telephone interview, however we were unable to carry this out as planned as we are just too busy." So telephone interview never happened, but they were happy to offer job based on his CV.
3) Salary offered was about £13.50 p/hr which for a basic data entry job requiring no experience sounds very high to me, and unusually was quoted in the latter as net salary after tax and NI. I've never seen anything other than gross income in an offer letter.
4) Add to that 28 days holiday plus bank holidays, a 6% of salary pension contribution, plus private healthcare for the employee and their spouse. Sounds good doesn't it, not far off £35k gross for a data entry assistant with no experience required.
5) He has a building address for their new office in Leicester but no unit number as "We are waiting to be allocated a unit number from the estate agent so you will get the full address nearer the starting time. This should be any day as the plan is to move next week."
6) He has a telephone number to call with questions but "It is usually best to email me as we are extremely busy arranging the new offices, so please only call if it is urgent to avoid blocking up the lines."
So with all this in mind he is then asked to provide his NI number and complete a financial crimes FC1 check. There is a link to a site (which looks legitimate) but they can't tell him how much it will cost, but state they will reimburse him in his 1st weeks salary. Apparently he needs to complete the check then grant his new employer access to this report, which I'm assuming is what the scam is.
My question is where should I be reporting this, as I haven't heard of it before?
Anybody else come across similar?
I haven't named the companies involved just in case they are legitimate and merely being used to cover the actual scam.
Edit - I've just called the number listed on the website and on the offer letter, 'strangely' on their voice recording they have an option to route through to the person who signed the offer letter, but if you choose any of the other 3 options you just hold indefinitely "waiting for the next available agent".
So obviously not legitimate in any way www.digitalseo.net
I'm also increasingly dubious about www.smartdisclosures.com who were linked to do the financial check, no telephone number listed for contact, and social media links just take you to LI and Twitter homepages rather than the specific company pages I would expect to find.
Edited by antspants on Monday 5th September 11:16
Vaud said:
My guess is a scam for personal details - they presumably have everything they need for running up a lot of lines for credit now?
Yes that's my conclusion as well, fortunately he hadn't already provided his NI number or completed the financial check. petrolbloke said:
I think ActionFraud is probably the right place to report it. I'd also report it to the job website.
Thanks 
Scam, typical employment fraud, the criminal record check fee is their payoff, his identity details are the bonus.
http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud_protection/...
http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud_protection/...
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