Description

A "Brandy Garrison" texted me for a supposed accounting internship opportunity, saying an email would be on the way to set up an interview. I texted back, giving them my email since they had not sent me anything yet. I then got an email claiming to be from Janus Henderson Group PLC, even though I had never applied to them, giving me a job offer and telling me to download the Session private messenger and get in touch with their "associate recruiter," Shannen Harper. I did so and she proceeded to give me details about the "internship" and ask me a series of questions supposedly designed to weigh my job prospects. I later received an email "confirming" my job offer, with an employment contract and internship documentation form to complete and return to Harper, on which I disclosed my physical address. She then said I had to get my training software/hardware installed at home to complete my orientation week, but that "problems" with the company's finance office necessitated that they send me the payment to push through to the equipment vendor. This led to my third email, containing a supposed e-payment check for $2000, for me to print, sign, and deposit into my mobile banking app. The next day, Harper was ready to get me in touch with the supposed vendor, but I reminded her that my bank takes up to 3 business days to process mobile deposits, which led to her saying to wait until the check goes through to contact her back. Of course, the check was bogus and triggered a fraud hold on my bank account, but it was resolved within a week, and Harper stopped trying to contact me. They were trying to either get $2000 from me that I didn't have or get my bank account information through their "vendor", but thankfully, the most personal identifier they milked from me was merely my location.