The scam is not downloading Signal. The scam will come later when they say "You just got the job! I will send you a check to purchase your remote work supplies".
Do not deposit the check. At all. No matter what. It is not a legitimate check. It will never be a legitimate check. No matter how real the check looks, I guarantee that no company works like this! Do not respond to them. Block their number and ignore them for the rest of your life.
What happens is: The check is fake and you deposit it. By law, your bank is required to credit your account with the check's value within a couple of days. HOWEVER: Just because your account gets credited the amount, doesn't mean the check is fully processed. The scammer will tell you to buy WFH supplies from a "trusted vendor". You are "buying" your supplies from the scammer, using the money credited to your account. Then, in 2-3 weeks, the bank will reject the check as fake. They will subtract the value from your account and you will have paid for your "supplies" using your own money. You will never receive the "supplies" or get your money back. The bank might even suspend your accound because of the fraudulent check.
A youtube channel that I follow actually released a video today about employment scams. In the section where he talks about red flags, compare them to the messages you just received. I bet you'll notice some similarities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9g-y8wVzws
I've never heard of this type of scam, but out of curiosity, what if I were to take their real looking fake check to one of those many terrible check cashing places? Would it end up being the scammers trying to claw back money from the check cashing place and those 2 groups fighting while I walk away with some cash? Cuz I'd be OK with that.
You take the check and cash it (assuming they accept it at all)
They find out it's fake
You have to give the money back before Rocco rings your doorbell with a baseball bat in hand
Doesn't seem worth it to me.
In truth though, they'd never accept the check. 99% of the time, scammers send an image of a check, then ask you to print it and use mobile deposit to put in your account. That way, nobody ever touches it and realizes it's a shitty jpeg on printer paper. It wouldn't fool anyone IRL.
Sometimes, they might send an actual check that they stole and doctored up, but that's too much work for a scammer most of the time.
Checks are still common in the USA. Not so much used by people, but businesses and corporations who transact money with people (eg insurance or banks).
Imagine in the world where we do stock trades that are measured in the milliseconds and it takes 2-3 weeks to process a check. This involves 3 things: establish communication with the bank, verify the account, verify the funds are available. If yes = transfer. Unreal that we enable these scammers still.
Funnily enough, not 2 weeks later, I ran into this. Totally felt this was going to be a scam, but was curious how/when the hook would be cast. Done over Text then Teams. Censored due to likely not real names/phone number that I don't want to dox. https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/33127b2c-f187-4621-9d3d-df45dd53818f.png
