🔺 r/personalfinanceukatelynreedi·67 days ago
My girlfriend got a remote job offer within a day, and they emailed her a $4,500 check to buy equipment. Is this an obvious scam?
My girlfriend recently applied for a remote administrative position through a legitimate job board. Within 24 hours she was contacted over Microsoft Teams, had a brief text-based interview, and was told she was hired the same day. That already felt unusually fast. The next morning they emailed her a tracking number for an overnight envelope containing a cashier's check for $4,500. They instructed her to: Deposit the check immediately. Send them proof that it had been deposited. Use the money to purchase a laptop, software, and office equipment from a "preferred vendor" they provided. They also stressed that everything needed to be completed within 24 hours so she could start training. That immediately set off alarm bells for me. I told her not to deposit anything until we verified it. We contacted the financial institution listed on the check, and they confirmed it wasn't issued by them. We haven't deposited the check or sent anyone money. My questions are: Is this the typical fake-check employment scam? Besides destroying the check, should we report it anywhere? Is there anything else we should do if the only information she shared was what's normally included on a résumé (name, a…