THE SCAM
The job that pays you in fake checks.
You apply for a job — or the offer finds you out of nowhere, by text or DM. The interview is quick and easy. You're "hired" within days, sometimes hours, for a well-paying remote job: mystery shopper, package reshipper, car-wrap advertiser. Then comes the check. Your new boss sends you one for a few thousand dollars and tells you to deposit it, keep your first paycheck, and send the rest somewhere — gift cards, a wire transfer, or Zelle to a "vendor." The check is fake. It bounces days after you've sent real money out, and your bank holds you responsible for every dollar.
THE RED FLAG
A real employer never sends you a check before you've done any work and asks you to forward part of it somewhere else. That's the whole tell, every time. Also watch for interviews done entirely over text, job offers with no video call or real office address, and pay that's suspiciously generous for the work. The FTC has been warning about this exact setup for years because it never stops working.
THE RULE
If a job involves receiving money and sending some of it on, it's not a job — it's a scam wearing a job costume. Walk away, don't deposit the check, and report the listing to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
(Source: FTC consumer alerts; long-documented check-overpayment and fake-job scam pattern)
SIGN-OFF
That's today's red flag. One scam, one red flag, one rule — pass it to someone who clicks first and asks questions later.
Got a scam text or a sketchy email? Send it via the contact page — the best ones make future red flags.