ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), employment scams are now the second biggest online scams in the country, second only to online shopping scams. The BBB is issuing a high alert on unemployment scams because of how crafty scammers have been in getting money from their victims. 

“These scammers are presenting themselves on many different sites,” said BBB spokesman Bryan Oglesby. “They’re presenting themselves as legitimate companies a lot of times, stealing the identity of a well known legitimate companies in the marketplace and then they try to take you off that platform, communicate with you through text messages and other means and that’s where they perpetrate their scam.”

Mason Miller, 23, has been hard at work starting a new life in St. Petersburg, moving here back in October from Pennsylvania.

“I’m just looking for a role that will provide me fulfillment, sustainability and an equal opportunity to advance,” he said.

Mason thought he had found that job earlier this year.

“They pretty much stated in the e-mail that I was a perfect fit for this new role that they just mustered up and everything seemed legit and with offering such a high paying salary. I jumped on it immediately,” Miller said.

But after filling out the necessary paperwork and doing the work, he says things went south fast. 

“In a nutshell, they roped me into fraud by participating in an online shipping scam,” he said. “They told me that I would receive $3,800 after my first month of employment. Safe to say, I never saw that.”

Sadly, Mason is not alone. The BBB reports that in 2022, employment scams went up 23.1%. The money that victims lost from the scams jumped 66.7%, increasing from $900 to $1,500 on average.  

“The scammers are taking a lot of time to pretend to be legitimate companies,” Oglesby said. “They’re engaging with their victims. They’re asking them for sensitive information. They’re going back and forth and they’re spending that time to get a lot of money out of their victims in this case.”

Mason lost about $90 in his case, but that’s a lot of money for someone still job hunting. So, now he says he’s hunting with more skeptical eyes and sharper teeth. 

“If I had any advice to give, do your research of the company and if it seems too good to be true. Trust your gut. Nobody deserves to go through something like this,” he said.