Last week, Sharon McCaugherty came across a posting for what seemed like an administrative assistant job at Royal Lepage on Indeed.com.
Once she clicked on the link, she was directed to KEYS Job Centre’s website where she could apply.
On Monday, she received a promising response. In an email, the company said: “It is an honour to inform you that the position has been given to you after proper examination of your credentials.”
McCaugherty never went through an interview process and the offer was based just on her application.
“Bells are going off and something’s not right with this,” says McCaugherty.
The company asked for her name, email, phone contact, and an address so they could do a background check.
McCaugherty became skeptical when she read the final request: “The company will provide you with funds to purchase some important software required for the duty in question. and then you will receive equipment from the company.”
“Which got me thinking, something’s not right. Why am I setting up and going to purchase this?” says McCaugherty.
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She was alarmed and decided to change her email address and phone number. McCaugherty also contacted Royal Lepage to confirm the posting; they knew nothing about it. She then contacted police and KEYS Job Centre, the site where she applied for the position.
“The profile looked legitimate. It was the Toronto address. All of those things sort of made sense to us,” says Gillian Watters, director of programs at KEYS Job Centre. “Now we’re going to make sure we contact the phone number and follow through that way.”
We asked KEYS Job Centre if they use a screening processing before posting jobs.
“We screen them before they go up,” said Watters. “We’ve had a job board for 10 years. We get 20-something postings a day and this is the first out of 100,000 postings that has gotten through that process.”
McCaugherty is thankful this she caught it before it went too far. She wants to warn others so it doesn’t happen to them.
“Follow your heart and just know that when something doesn’t feel right, just don’t do it,” says McCaugherty.
KEYS Job Centre says they will increase efforts to enhance their screening process and they hope that going forward no one else has to be a victim of a job scam.
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