North Korea targeting cash-strapped Americans in expanding job scam: FBI
Overseas workers pose as remote job applicants using stolen identities to get hired by U.S. companies, and they recruit ordinary Americans to help. The FBI warns that the scheme is growing and that its profits fund a foreign government's weapons programs.
How it works
Fake job listings and recruiters reach job seekers through job boards, messaging apps, or social media. The offer promises easy remote pay, often for a role that needs little experience. The scheme then asks the worker to share personal details, lend a Social Security number or bank account, or accept company laptops at home and forward them to others. The person doing this ends up as a front for workers who are not who they claim to be.
Red flags to watch for
- Remote job offer arrives unsolicited through a messaging app
- Employer asks you to receive and forward company equipment
- Request to open or share a bank account to receive pay
- Interviews happen only by text or chat, with video always refused
- Pay is unusually high for little work or experience
What to do
Do not accept equipment, forward packages, or share your bank account or Social Security number for a job you have not verified. Look up the company on its official website and call its main number, not one a recruiter gives you, to confirm the job exists. If you already shared information or money, contact your bank, place a fraud alert or credit freeze with the credit bureaus, and report it to IC3.gov and reportfraud.ftc.gov.
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