{"id":351546,"date":"2015-05-08T02:18:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T07:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?p=351546"},"modified":"2015-05-09T05:02:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-09T10:02:22","slug":"warning-about-bogus-employer-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=351546","title":{"rendered":"Warning About Bogus Employer Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2015\/05\/Better-Business-Bureau.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2015\/05\/Better-Business-Bureau-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Better Business Bureau\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-351548\" \/><\/a>TYLER &#8212; The Better Business Bureau Serving Central East Texas is warning East Texas job seekers to be aware of individuals posing as potential employers in an attempt to collect personal information by offering non-existent jobs. The Tyler office of Workforce East Texas has received 35 to 40 calls from job seekers who have received unsolicited text messages from bogus employers using the names of established businesses to interview job candidates via online chats in an attempt to retrieve personally identifiable information. This includes bank account information. BBB is warning job seekers about job offers which promise what may appear to be a lucrative job opportunity, but is nothing more than a sophisticated scam. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We always advise consumers to do their homework before making a purchase\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, said Mechele Agbayani Mills, President and CEO of BBB Serving Central East Texas. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They should likewise do so during a job search.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Fake employers may use the names of well-established national or local businesses in a practice known as corporate identity theft, or as it is also known, &#8220;name hijacking.&#8221; In this case the scam artists, posing as an international company, contacts individuals who have recently updated their resumes via SMS (text message) and instructs them to conduct an interview online via chat room. During the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153interview\u00e2\u20ac\u009d they make attempts to get personal information, or money, or both. &#8220;Workforce East Texas will not attempt to contact you via email, nor will they instruct potential employers to do so&#8221;, said Stephen Lynch, Workforce East Texas Area Operations Manager. <\/p>\n<p>The BBB reminds you:<br \/>\nLegitimate employers will not conduct employment interviews via chatroom. <\/p>\n<p>Never send anyone money to someone who has offered you a job. <\/p>\n<p>Job-Seekers should not respond to text messages from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153potential employers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Forward any suspicious text messages to 7726 (SPAM). Your provider will flag the number and block them from being able to contact you.<\/p>\n<p>If you are unsure if an email or text message originated from the Workforce East Texas, contact them at 800-252-3642. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TYLER &#8212; The Better Business Bureau Serving Central East Texas is warning East Texas job seekers to be aware of individuals posing as potential employers in an attempt to collect personal information by offering non-existent jobs. The Tyler office of Workforce East Texas has received 35 to 40 calls from job seekers who have received &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=351546\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Warning About Bogus Employer Scam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":351548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 06:09:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351549,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351546\/revisions\/351549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/351548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}