Job scammers have been targeting young people searching for employment, often pretending to be pharma or healthcare companies, according to a recent report.
The report from cybersecurity company Proofpoint examined scams spanning from March through June that lured job hunters with fake interviews, video calls and job offers.
Ultimately, the goal was to have the victims send them money as an advance fee fraud (AFF). College students have been particularly at risk of the scams, but the general population has also been affected, as economic uncertainty, layoffs and record-high inflation have been taking a toll on workers nationwide.
According to the Proofpoint report, scammers often sent interview requests for remote data entry jobs via email, along with PDFs about the company, salary and requirements. Then, scammers try to get job seekers onto a video or chat interview via a third-party platform.
Many of the scammers were impersonating real pharma companies, such as Amberstone Biosciences, Ensysce Biosciences, Milestone Pharmaceuticals or GT Biopharma — as well as impersonating real people at the companies. However, there have been reports of scammers pretending to be other health-related companies as well, like mental health company Spring Health.
A quick search on TikTok makes it clear that this isn’t an isolated event: Countless people have been posting videos telling their stories about how they got scammed by entities pretending to be biotech companies.
Under one video, a commenter wrote “That’s crazy I got an email from Taconic Biosciences; they sent me a 4K check to buy my own wfh equipment; it was so weird.”
After securing the victim with a fake job offer, the scammers typically ask the person to pay for work-required computers or other equipment through a work “supplier,” claiming they would reimburse them with a check.
“Based on the observed payloads, victimology, and campaign and message volume, Proofpoint assesses with high confidence that this is a financially motivated cybercriminal activity cluster,” the report authors wrote.
“All users should be aware of this type of threat, especially those currently in the job market and engaging with recruiters and human resources representatives,” they continued. “Legitimate employers will never send paychecks before an employee’s first day of work, nor will they ask employees to send money to purchase items prior to work beginning.”
Additionally, Proofpoint urged people to stay on the lookout for red flags like a sudden job offer from a Gmail or Hotmail account pretending to be a pharma company, overly simplistic or vague interview questions, PDFs or documents with grammar mistakes and requests to send money to purchase work equipment.
This isn’t the first time the pharma industry has been the target of job scams.
Last year, scammers were found to be impersonating Intellia Therapeutics, resulting in multiple job seekers emailing the actual company to ask if it could confirm the fraudulent job offers.
