SALON

Saturday, Mar 23, 2013 6:00 PM UTC

Beware of the latest Craigslist job scam

Online con artists are preying on students, luring them to Mexico with phony job offers

By

Topics: the daily dot, Craigslist, scams, Jobs, the unemployed, Mexico, , ,

Beware of the latest Craigslist job scam
This article originally appeared on The Daily Dot.

With phony job offers on Craigslist, scammers are enticing young people to Mexico, where gangs of criminals wait to strip the victims’ car and maybe worse.
The Daily Dot

U-T San Diego tells the story of 18-year-old Nate Dirkmaat, who was on a semester break from Brigham Young University when he came across an ad on Craigslist that sounded like a great gig. Habitat for Humanity — the charity that builds affordable housing around the world — was paying $21.50 an hour for drivers. Dirkmaat could earn some cash and help people out at the same time.

On March 2nd, he set up a meeting at a coffee shop in Mission Valley, Calif., with the man who posted the ad. The man told Dirkmaat he’d have to go on a “tour” in Mexico first before getting hired. At that point Dirkmaat — who’d already handed over copies of his social security card, birth certificate, driver’s license and vehicle registration — got suspicious. He left the meeting and told his parents about it.

They called Habitat for Humanity, who confirmed it was all a scam. And not the first of its kind, either.

The representative told them a story of another young man who didn’t get suspicious until it was almost too late. He had driven down for the “tour” in Tijuana, where someone showed him the charity’s supposed home-building project. It must have been wholly unimpressive, because the young man suddenly got very worried. Something was off. He returned to his SUV — only to find a group of men preparing to strip it. According to U-T San Diego, the kid managed to jump back into the car, and he sped off.

Since then, the scam has morphed. Dirkmaat’s mother said she’s found ads with the exact same name and number for the Salvation Army.

There are some obvious lessons to learn from this story: Don’t go down to Tijuana for a Craigslist job offer that has nothing to do with Tijuana. And, for Christ’s sake, don’t hand over all your identifying information to a stranger you just met in a coffee shop. “They could totally open a credit card in his name,” Dirkmaat’s mother told U-T San Diego. That, or worse.

More Kevin Morris.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 4 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from The Daily Dot, a paper of record for the World Wide Web reporting on the important and relevant topics for online communities.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations