Archive Episode: Job Hunting? Look Out for These Scams

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Employment scams are one of the fastest growing types of fraud. The recent surge can be traced to several post-pandemic factors that make these crimes even easier for criminals. In this episode, we will hear from a job seeker and an employer who've both been affected, as well as an expert who shares the red flags job seekers should be on the alert for.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on The Perfect Scam.
0:04.0	Oh, thank you for your patience.
0:05.8	We can't wait to have you join our team.
0:08.9	And the email and the website seemed legit.
0:13.9	I looked at it.
0:15.8	It was up.
0:16.7	It seemed real.
0:18.3	I got welcomed to board.
0:20.7	And then they were going to put me in touch with the supervisor.
0:25.6	They had a logo on the job description. I mean, the job description was fully detailed.
0:30.6	It was impressive two pages of text of what the job entails, what they're getting, how much they're getting paid, and what the company will provide for them.
0:39.5	Was I impressed? I was very impressed,
0:41.3	but I was also alerted, I was alarmed, like, why are they picking me?
0:49.8	Welcome back to the perfect scam.
0:51.8	I'm your host, Bob Sullivan.
0:54.8	Looking for work can be a harrowing, frustrating, tantalizing experience.
1:00.5	The ups and downs can be torturous and tiring.
1:04.4	Yay, I got an interview. No, I never heard back.
1:09.0	So finding a job is hard enough, but into this emotionally charged atmosphere, criminals have
1:15.4	found a really vulnerable set of victims.
1:18.6	The pandemic and the explosion of work from home jobs only adds fuel to this fire.
1:24.9	The Federal Trade Commission says online job scams tripled from 2020 to
	...

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