COLORADO SPRINGS — The holiday season brings with it plenty of seasonal work opportunities, but it can also provide cover for people looking to steal your personal information and money.
"All they need is one person to open the door. I'm sure I'm far from the first one and far from the last one," said one woman.
Because of her ties to law enforcement we agreed to not use this woman's name or show her face.
"I had seen a notice that Amazon was coming into Colorado Springs and they were doing some hiring and the process to hire with Amazon is an online application. So I applied online it was the first time I had done an online applicaiton," said the woman.
Quickly, a third party company claiming to do accounting work for Amazon followed up with our applicant.
"I was surprised I was a perfect fit so quickly and they offered to send me money to buy equipment to work from home," the woman said.
A $2,950 check did arrive, but she realized it was a scheme using Amazon's name to earn her trust in the hopes she'd deposit the bad check.
"This appears to just be a twist on the we'll send you a fake check, you deposit the check, then you become the criminal," said the woman.
Adah Rodriguez at the Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado is warning consumers to be aware of schemes like this
"We've heard of these so called companies contacting individuals and saying they do background checks for a particular company like Amazon. So then they collect all the information and then they say it's going to cost $200 to complete your background check that you send in. Then you don't have the job, you're out the $200 and you've just given all your personal information," said Rodriguez.
Amazon sent News5 the following statement:
"We are in touch daily with thousands of people who are interested in working at Amazon. Our recruiters who contact candidates — whether it be via text, call, or email—will never ask for banking information, or request an enrollment fee. We encourage those who think they may have been contacted by a fraudulent source offering a job on behalf of Amazon to report it via http://www.amazondelivers.jobs/contactus . We actively investigate reported employment scams, and as a result, dozens of fraudulent recruiting websites have been taken down. We're also assisting federal law enforcement in their efforts to investigate and prosecute perpetrators."
