Description

They posed as IT recruiters sourcing Program Manager positions at HP. I was first contacted via phone by a woman named "Rachelle" who told me they'd seen my info on LinkedIn, and they were recruiting for positions at Hewlitt Packard (HP) who was moving their production from China to Thailand (which is in fact true). She said if I was interested, the Sr Recruiter named "Jay Gomes" would soon be contacting me to discuss the position. Jay contacted me (also by phone) and later by email sending me what looked like a legitimate job description. He said one of the requirements was that you had to have a Scrum Master Certified (SMC) certification or be in the process of getting the certification. He emailed me two links for online courses that he said would be acceptable. I was willing to get the certification, and to move forward with the interview process, I had to reply back with my enrollment showing I had enrolled in one of the online courses. He then scheduled me for a 30-minute interview the following week and even sent a reminder email to me the day of the interview to make sure I was ready. On 1/15/25 I had a 1/2-hour phone interview with "Devin" who told me he was initially screening candidates and those that made it to the next round would then interview with the hiring manager. He proceeded to ask me several seemingly legitimate questions related to the position. Towards the end of the conversation, he explained next steps and said they would notify me in a week or so if I had made it to the next round. When a week went by, I contacted Jay (the supposed recruited) and asked if he'd heard anything. He said that he was expecting feedback on January 30th (I am reporting this on January 28, 2025). Meanwhile I had logged onto the upgradeskill.us website and done some of the training which all looks very legitimate (it is video based and then you take tests) and tracks your progress. I also received hard copy study materials through the mail. Despite everything looking very legitimate, for some reason, I decided to look further into whether the certification of this particular website I had enrolled with (https://upgradeskill.us/course/scrum-master-certified/) was well regarded in the industry. As I started to research it online, I quickly learned that it was a scam reported by users on both LinkedIn and Reddit.