Interesting Scam On Craigslist

A friend passed on a couple of emails and asked if this seemed legitimate. Their child had applied for a job after seeing an employment notice on Craigslist entitled "FRONT DESK OFFICE CLERK POSITION - FULL & PART TIME AVAILABLE".

Hello (name removed),

My name is John. I am the office manager here at Home Giants, Inc. I will be handling your job application.

I've skimmed through your resume and everything looks good. I will review your resume in detail and contact you with further information in regards to your application. There were a few applications submitted before yours, so expect a reply in a day or two.

In the mean time, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.


Thank You,

John Williams
Office Manager
Home Giants, Inc.
JWilliams@homegiants.com
1-800-987-3400 ex. 78

And the second email read like this:

Hello (name removed),

I have reviewed your resume and I am very interested in hiring you for the available position. Before I can setup an in person interview, our company requires your recent credit score. Your credit score is required because the position you applied for includes handling company cash and using our company credit card (for the ordering of office supplies and other miscellaneous purchases). If your credit score is low for a legitimate reason, you will have an opportunity to explain why. Please remember to bring a printout of your score when coming in to our office for your interview.

You can find a list of sites where you can get your credit score for no charge here: http://top3review.org/finance/1-free-credit-reports.html

When you get your credit score do not email it directly to me. It will only delay your application process. Please submit your credit score here:

http://homegiants.com/submit-your-credit-score?(name and email removed)

First, they ask for their credit score. You have to pay to get your credit score. You can get a free credit report from each of the three bureaus free once each year, but that is different from a credit score. If they need to, employers typically order a credit report for the prospective employee.

The site they refer them to, top3review.org/finance/1-free-credit-report.html lists three possible sites to get a free report from. The first is the "Editors Pick Award" winner. The second once has a negative of "spammy emails and affiliate ads" and the third one is "not an actual credit bureau", but none of them are actually credit bureaus.

If you go to the first, Free Credit Report 360, you are offered free credit scores as long as you get the "Free Credit Diagnosis Trial". The trial lasts seven days and you have to pay $1 processing fee with a credit or debit card. After the seven days you are charged/debited $29.95 a month for Credit Diagnosis.

If you go to homegiants.com and click on the Contact Us link, you'll find they don't have an address. If you call their toll free number, nobody answers. Well, at least not for me. Their site is remarkably short on detail of any kind. The image on the Buy/Sell page looks like the Home Giants part was photoshopped in. The lighting on it is all wrong.

If you go to http://homegiants.com/submit-your-credit-score you'll find a form to enter a name, email address and a credit score. I entered John Smith, my "trash" email at hotmail.com and a bogus number and got an error page with this in the address box: http://homegiants.cohttp//homegiants.com/submit-your-credit-score-success

So I "fixed" the address and entered http://homegiants.com/submit-your-credit-score-success and darned if I didn't get a page that said my credit score was successfully submitted.

I did a lookup of homegiants.com and the domain name is a private registration by an outfit in Arizona called Domains by Proxy, Inc., who provide a service of registering domain names so the real owner's name can remain secret.

This looks like a scam to drive people towards getting suckered into signing up for a "free" credit service that results in their bank account or credit card getting shanked for a couple of $29.95 hits.

*** Update 1 ***

Not long after posting this I received an email from a person who replied to the same job ad.

I recently applied for a “Front Desk Clerk” position at a real estate office on Craigslist. After the second email back requesting that I find out my credit score, I immediately became suspect. I decided to Google the company, Home Giants, for any complaints, negative reports, etc. That is how I found you and your blog post. I just thought I would inform you that the two emails I received read the exact same as those sent to your friend’s child.

I have not clicked on the link in the second email yet, that according to you, will direct me to the list of credit score companies. I think the only thing I will be clicking on is the delete tab in my inbox.

So that was cool.

*** Update 2 ***

My hotmail account received this reply:

Hello John Smith,

Just to keep you updated, I received your credit score submission. I will further review your resume and contact you shortly about the available position.



Thank You,

John Williams
Office Manager
Home Giants, Inc.
JWilliams@homegiants.com
1-800-987-3400 ex. 78

I'll post more if this goes any further.

*** Update 3 ***

Received this in my hotmail account on Mar 1.

Hello John Smith,

After reviewing the qualifications of all of the applicants for the office clerk position, we have selected another candidate whose skills and experience better match our needs at this time. We would like to thank you for your interest in Home Giants, Inc. and we will keep your application on file for 90 days.


Thank You,

John Williams
Office Manager
Home Giants, Inc.
JWilliams@homegiants.com
1-800-987-3400 ex. 78

Damn! Just my luck. Someone else got the bogus job. And I didn't even send in an application that they could keep on file for 90 days.