Reports about work from home victims are over-running the information channels leaving everyone aghast. The Work from home employees have become susceptible to not only losing their hard-earned cash but also of identity theft. Alan Liley had no idea what repercussions he will have to face when he saw the ‘innocent’ job offer on a popular and respected job site. Apparently, the organization was called INC Property and they required him to quickly cash and deposit checks for their international clients. A traumatized Liley recalls, “I got a real nice introductory letter from this woman that said she’s glad to have me on here. And being out of work, I figured I’d give it a shot.”
The modus operandi is very clever. Law enforcement officials explain how the victims would receive a check that is not from the company but from a person who has know idea that he/she has just become a victim of identity theft. Next, the company asks the victim to cash the check at his/her local bank only to have the money wired overseas by them. If not this, they may ask the ‘prey’ to write news checks to other companies. By the time, the check that was sent to the at home employee would have come back as counterfeit leaving the victim out of all the money that was sent out in checks.
Liley was smart enough to smell something fishy when he found that the check addressed to him was from a woman in Arizona and not INC Property. Upon calling the woman in regard, he wasn’t much surprised when the lady refused to have sent any check to him. In Liley’s words, “She totally flipped out. She had no idea this had been done.” And when the office of INC Property was contacted, all one could hear was a recorded message in Spanish.
Experts say that all those aspirant of working from home should be very careful when sharing personal information, particularly their bank account number!
