Looking for a Job, Not a Scam

Job scams that are hurting job seekers

After reading forums of Silicon Valley people looking for work and the stories of scam and fraud these people were exposed to on websites like Craigslist or Indeed, I decided I would see if I could get to the bottom of what they were experiencing. On December 2, 2014 I uploaded a resume on Craigslist under the title PhD Religion, Journalism and Social Media. On December 4, 2014 I was contacted by a person claiming to be Michael A. Raymond from Sun Life Financial.  He contacted me via telephone and invited me to do an interview using Yahoo Messenger. I agreed and within 20 minutes I was instant messaging with the person I believed was Mr. Raymond.

This was my interview with Michael A. Raymond:

I am Mr. Michael A. Raymond, The Hiring Manager to the firm Sun Life Financial Company. I am here to brief and interview you about the opening position, please introduce yourself, sex, indicating your location. Just follow the briefing and you can ask questions when I am through. Let me know when you have finished reading and understanding every line. You will be allowed to ask questions later. With each line just respond with an ok.

The positions available are: Data Entry, Clerical Admin, Administrative Clerk/Assistance, Medical Billing /Coding, Customer Service Receptionist, Accounting, Payroll Clerk, Book keeping, Typist Clerk, Management. Which are you applying for?

Next would be the briefing about the Job and the company. I advise you read with care.

The Name of the company is Sun Life Financial. To know more about the company please visit www.sunlife.com (this link is real to an actual Sun Life Financial Institute.) 

Sun Life Financial is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The largest brokerage in the world, with more than 15,000 Financial Advisories and approximately $2.2 trillion in client assets. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving more than 59 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 6,100 retail banking offices,  The company serves clients in more than 150 countries and has relationships with 99 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sun Life Financial is one of the world’s premier providers of wealth management, securities trading and sales, corporate finance and investment banking services. Working with our clients as strategic partners, we create and execute winning solutions, which address our clients’ most pressing strategic, financial and investment needs—anywhere in the world.

We stand apart by building and maintaining solid partnerships with clients. Sun life Financial places our client relationships first and is proud to conduct our business based on five unwavering principles: Client Focus, Respect for the Individual, Teamwork, Responsible Citizenship, and Integrity. This branch recruiting is located at 520 Pike St #2910, Seattle, WA 98101, United States. Soon we will be setting up a branch at your location that is why we are looking for a 16 team of workers to work from home at the moment, Once the company office Branch is been opened at your location ,then you can choose either to  continue working from home or at the company's office.

This is strictly an online work and the working hours are flexible and you can choose to work from anywhere of your choice, the pay is $35 per hour training is $21 per hour and will be get payment Bi-weekly via direct deposit or paycheck and the maximum amount you can work a week is 45 hours. If you are employed you are going to be working as a full time employee and not an independent contractor. Benefits include Health, Dental, Life and AD&D Insurance, Employee Wellness and 401k plans. Paid Time Off and Holidays with Generous Company Discounts Working hours are flexible. All activities and corresponding time are to be recorded in an excel spreadsheet. As for your duties, I will assist you with any difficulties by email.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITY: Tracks data and source documents. Prepares and sorts source documents, and identifies and interprets data to be entered. Compiles, sorts and verifies data for accuracy. Contacts responsible parties or clients from other organization to resolve moderately complex questions, inconsistencies, or missing data. Also perform Records keeping, keyboarding/data entry and performing a variety of other office tasks account balancing, invoicing recording, proper data analysis of sales records and recording pay slips into accounting database all these will be done through the use of the Accounting Software, such as faxing or emailing confidently and positive attitude Online from home. Can you handle all of these duties effectively?

You will undergo a one week training from your training supervisor, he will training you on how to work with the programs accurate and other Data entry works you will need to get done. Your training is going to be done online through your PC and PHONE.

The Supervisor, who would be attached to you online, He/She would assign logs of duty daily and you would be required to work according to instructions, using the Microsoft Office tools and the Accounting software. Now the function of the Accounting software is to arrange, formalize and manage the data you have processed, sent to your supervisor via Email.

I was then asked a series of questions: Are you seeking for part time or full time job? How many hours of your time will you be able to devote to the service of the company? What is your greatest strength and weakness? Are you currently employed? What are your career goals? What do you understand by Disbursement and Reimbursement of Funds? Have you ever worked as a Manager / Front Desk / Admin and Accounting Clerk before? Do you have a printer, scanner, photocopier and fax machine? Do you have an idea of how to use MS excel? What do you understand by privacy and code of conduct? How much training do you think you need to become a productive employee? How do you see yourself fitting in as one of the company co-worker? Do you know your typing speed? Give me 3 genuine and specific reasons why you should be hired by the company.

Well, you have done well so far and you seem like a perfect fit for this position.  I need you to hold on online because I need to forward our conversation to the Head Department to enable them see if you are committed and good for this job. I need you to hold back online.

I am back are you still with me? Due to your level of experience and communication skills, the company has decided to give you a chance. We like seeing your diligence, charisma and commitment towards this job. Congratulations! I hope to see you working for the company soon. In the meantime I need you to provide me with these following information to enable the Company secretary's department to put you into the data base. Full name, state, city, address, zip code and phone number. How would you like to be paid via Direct Deposit or check? What means of payment would you prefer, weekly or bi-weekly? What Bank do you operate with? You will start work ASAP once you get your accounting software's working tools from our vendor. Also, your W-4 form will be coming along with your software’s. Once you get everything from our vendor, you are to sign on your W-4 form and email it to me for confirmation.

You will need some accounting Data Entry software for this job. Here are the names of the software you will need  to start working with Myob business essentials  software 2011, US Patent Single Users Pack simply  accounting 2011, Apple Final Cut Express 3.5 HD  Upgrade, Norton Ghost 9.0,Microsoft Office XP 2011  Standard Upgrade, Peach tree Premium Accounting 2011 with a brand new Apple laptop. The company will provide you a free Apple laptop with a fast internet connection.

Before you start work you will be issued a Start-up check and you will be using the funds on it to set up your mini office by purchasing accounting software programs plus the shipping logistics, because we will be sending you some working materials and office equipment which you will need to start work with, immediately after you get this payment you will begin work. The company will be providing you with the funds you will use in purchasing the software programs you will be working with .You will get the Start-up check mailed to your home via FedEx or USPS and once you get the check you are to get the Start-up check deposited into your account. The Start-up check will cover all the equipment you will need to start work.

Once you get the check from the accountant you are to proceed to your bank and have the check deposited at once and get back to me online. Once the check has been deposited the funds will be available into your account for withdrawal the next day. I will instruct you on how you will make the purchase of your working material and office equipment from our vendor which all our employees has been buying from for years now. She will have your software programs attached to your brand new Apple laptop package with a complete set of your office equipment shipped to you via FedEx or USPS. Understood? 

The software vendor will be responsible for installing the software and any updates and patches. They will also need to perform manual data backups and secure the data to meet HIPAA standards. The vendor is a retailer, she makes production complete by making the software's available to the final consumers which are the employees. Your supervisor will be introduced to you, which will be attached to you online. He/She will be the one to instruct you on how you will use the software and anything else you will need to know within that.  Your training supervisor needs you to get these programs ready to enable you work accurately with him or her. You will receive your duties everyday via email and your supervisor will be attached to you online to assist you with any difficulties.

We have a set time to calculate working hours during training 9am – 3pm after which you will work from 9am - 5pm your time zone. That will be all for now I will be sending you your employment letter so all you need to do once you get it is to print out sign scan and email to me. Understood?

After this extremely long and detailed interview I did receive an offer letter with Sun Life letter head. I also called Sun Life Financial (from the website 800 number) to verify whether or not this was a real interview. To my surprise there is a Michael Raymond working for this company, however he did not contact me. The issue that surprised me more was that the company actually had very little concern for everything that I shared with them. I was transferred to a security person who honestly did not seem even remotely concerned. For a financial institute one would like to believe that they would want to protect themselves from people like this even if they had no concern for the job seeker. I contacted by phone and email the real Michael Raymond and his words, I was not the guy and we do not interview that way.

The following day a FedEx did arrive and in it was a check for $2575.89 issued from America First Credit Union. I called the bank and shared that I had received a check from Sun Life Financial (the check did not have the company name) and that I wanted to verify the funds as I was instructed to deposit the check today. After hearing this story the bank informed me that they could not verify if there were funds or if this check was even legit and sent me to a verification line. I typed the account number into an automated system to find out that this is a real check from a real account that did not have enough funds to cover the check.

I contacted the person calling himself “Michael Raymond” to inform him that I contacted the bank. He stated this was a violation of company policy and I was not to do such things. He told me I was to go right away and deposit the check. As you can see I did not do that and would strongly advise you never do that either. I only wish for the sake of the job seeker the real company and the bank would have found this more important not only to protect themselves but people everywhere from being taken advantage of out of sure need for employment.