Scamming Immigrants

Jia had her first run-in with online scammers this week. She applied for a vague job for Chinese speakers. Her email was responded to politely with a list of basic employment questions (availability, knowledge of subjects, etc.). We were a little confused by the email address not being a company address--and the signed name didn't match the email name. We looked up the company, and it was legitimate.

Then they asked for Jia's social security number. Fortunately, she didn't reply--I explained how important that number is when it was issued. She called up the company to find that the person attached to the email address doesn't exist at the company.

Desperate economic times lead us to apply for any available positions that are posted. And it seems that there are more scams out there catering to the desire to work. I guess the scammer's hope is that Chinese immigrants don't know enough to not give out such information when it isn't absolutely necessary.