The Act
A fresh graduate got a DM offering a remote "executive assistant" role: $4,000/month, no interview, start tomorrow. The only catch — she had to pay a $300 "equipment deposit" upfront so the company could ship her a laptop.
The Price
She wired the $300. The laptop never shipped, the "recruiter" vanished, and the company website turned out to be a two-week-old template site. Worse, she had handed over her ID and bank details during "onboarding" — cue a year of credit monitoring and frozen accounts.
The Lesson
Real employers never ask you to pay to get hired. No interview plus an urgent start date plus an upfront fee is the holy trinity of job scams. Verify the company independently — never through links they send you.
FAFO Index
8/10 — the money was just the appetizer; the identity theft was the main course.
Bottom Line
If the job pays you, money flows toward you. Any flow in the other direction is a scam.