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HR Manager's Dream Job After Interviewing For Three Months Turns Out To Be Scam

HR Manager's Dream Job After Interviewing For Three Months Turns Out To Be Scam

She has warned others

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

A woman who landed her 'dream job' in HR after an intense three-month recruitment process was crushed to discover it was all a scam.

Ashlea Lewis announced her role as a HR consultant at a tech firm with a post on LinkedIn last week, excitedly describing how she would be working with an 'amazing team'.

The celebratory post had said: "BREAKING NEWS: I got the job. Not just 'the' job, but my dream job!"

But just a week later she was devastated to find out that her job was an 'intricate scam'.

Ashlea told how she had built a relationship up with the recruiter, who had even spoken to her over video call for 'interviews' and signed a contract and NDA. She had even begun to work for them remotely.

She said 'alarm bells' rang but she put it down to the process being different during the pandemic, but she eventually checked with the company, who revealed the job was fake.

Ashlea said: "Following the amazing response to my post about my dream job, it is with a very heavy heart that I am posting the whole thing was a very intricate scam.

"Over a three-month period, a contact pursued me, built a relationship, video interviewed and negotiated a package before sending an NDA and contract for a three-year consultancy role, working on a tech giant project and countersigned by their HR manager.

"Mercifully I did not provide bank details or ID, stating I would in person.

"The start date was 11th of November however alarm bells started to ring and I decided to check with the tech giant to be told the contract and role were fake.

"This has obviously been a huge shock for us as a family, particularly with Christmas coming and having turned down roles for this one, but we will bounce back.

"Please beware - I'm by no means a stupid person, but I was fully reeled in by this one."

Ashlea urged anyone who had also fallen victim to the same scam to come forward and contact the authorities.

A LinkedIn spokesperson said: "To keep our members safe from bad actors, we enforce our policies, which are very clear: fraudulent activity, including job scams and fake jobs, is a violation of our terms of service.

"Our teams use multiple automated techniques, coupled with human reviews and member reporting to take swift action to remove fake jobs, profiles and companies, as well as prevent them from being created.

"We strongly advise our members not to send payment or sensitive personal data as part of the recruitment process.

"If members do suspect a job is fake, they can easily report it by contacting us here and we will move quickly to investigate and take appropriate action.

"Our members come to LinkedIn to have respectful and constructive conversations with real people and we're focused on ensuring they have a safe environment to do just that."

Bedfordshire Police were contacted for comment.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, News