How to tell if a job offer is fake in Puerto Rico

The 9 warning signs

A job scam almost never comes with a single red flag: it comes with several at once. If you recognize two or three of these in the same offer, stop giving out information.

• 1. They ask you for money. For training, for a uniform, to «process your application», for equipment they will «reimburse later». No legitimate offer charges you to work.
• 2. You are hired with no real interview, or the entire interview happens over text messages and there is never a voice or video call.
• 3. The pay is far above market for simple work. $25 an hour to answer emails from home does not exist.
• 4. The email comes from a free domain instead of the company's domain. A real recruiter at a pharmaceutical company does not write from a generic account.
• 5. They pressure you to decide today, or tell you the position «is gone this afternoon». Artificial urgency is the scammer's main tool.
• 6. They ask for your Social Security number, bank account or a photo of your ID before a formal written offer.
• 7. The check scheme: they send you a check, ask you to deposit it, buy something and return the difference. The check bounces weeks later and the money you returned was yours.
• 8. The position does not appear on the company's official portal. If it is real, it is almost always posted on their own careers page too.
• 9. The «recruiter» profile was created weeks ago, with no history, no connections and no posts other than job offers.

How to verify in two minutes

First, search the company name along with the word «scam». Then go to the company's official website and look for the vacancy there. And if you are going to call, dial the number listed on their official site, never the one texted to you: the number is part of the trap.

The step almost nobody takes, and that settles the question in a minute in Puerto Rico: look the company up in the Department of State's corporations registry at rcp.estado.pr.gov. That is the public registry of legal entities in Puerto Rico and of those authorized to do business here. If the «company» offering you a job appears nowhere and has no verifiable physical address either, you have your answer.

A separate case is offers claiming to be from the government. Puerto Rico government positions are published in the Central Registry of Announcements at empleos.pr.gov, and federal ones at usajobs.gov. Neither charges to apply. If someone offers you «access» to government positions for a fee, it is a scam.

If you already gave data or money

If you sent money, call your bank or credit union immediately: the faster you act, the better the odds of stopping the transaction. If you gave your Social Security number, consider placing a fraud alert on your credit and check your accounts often over the coming months.

Reporting does not always recover the money, but it is what gets the operation shut down before someone else falls for it. These are the channels that work in Puerto Rico:

• Puerto Rico Police: if there was fraud or identity theft, file the report. The complaint number is what your bank and the credit bureaus will ask for later.
• DACO, Department of Consumer Affairs: file online at serviciosenlinea.daco.pr.gov, or call (787) 722-7555 or 3-1-1.
• If someone used your data to claim unemployment: write to denunciasdesempleo@trabajo.pr.gov or call the Department of Labor at (787) 754-5353.
• If the fraud involves public funds or a supposed government position: Office of the Inspector General, informa@oig.pr.gov, oig.pr.gov/informa or (787) 679-7979.
• Federally, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes reports of job scams.