Zynga hiring scam warning
I was recently hit with this horrible scam, i needed some time to recover before speaking about it but please help me spread this to warn others!!
TLDR; Scammers are Impersonating the real company Zynga and are targeting artist looking for work. They try to get you to deposit a check and then have you send it to a “vendor” they runaway with the money and you’re held responsible for almost 5k of fraudulent money.
Update: Zynga’s HR team is aware of this scam and are doing their best to put a stop to it.
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It started out innocent enough I received an email telling me that they found me as an artist though a looking for work jobsite that i actually use
They told me a VERY nice job was open and that I should apply for it.
I thought no harm right? It was a really nice job so i probably wouldn’t even get the position but, like many freelance artist needing the work, I decided to apply anyways
I go an email the next day saying that they liked my portfolio and was selected to move on to get interviewed! I was so excited about the opportunity at an interview that i went to sleep early on my birthday in order to wake up the next morning to do this “interview”
unfortunately I think i’ve lost the messages to this “interview” but they had me do it all over text?/ google hangouts. At the time this seemed suspicious but the man conducting this interview seemed on the up and up? every quested they asked sounded like a real interview question, they asked me about my experience and if i knew how to use a list of industry standard programs. I got good feed back and by the end of it all He had me convinced that I did great and that i had gotten the job. At this point i was easily swept away all doubt gone They said they were going to send me a contract letter and everything.
But then finally came the scam
After convincing me that i had gotten the job they told me they’d pay me in advance to be able to buy everything I needed to work from their “trusted vendor”
Thank fully The whole time I had been speaking to friends about this, One of which actually knows people who work for Zynga and pointed out to me that all the emails and names were fake. I was able to back out and block them all before things went too far but if i hadn’t they would have had me send them four THOUSAND dollars of fraudulent money that i would have been held responsible for.
SO PLEASE these people are horrible and purposely targeting artists! They are going out of their way to impersonate a legitimate company to trick people /looking for work/ out of what little money they have. I’ve also heard that other artists have been hit with a similar scam recently but i cannot say if it was the same. If you’re an artist please keep an eye open and if something feels fishy trust your gut and don’t bother with it!
This post saved my ass. If you receive this email, don't even open it. Just delete it and move on with your life. It's not real and don't let them convince you otherwise. If you downloaded the app, make sure you don't allow access to your contacts or your location or anything.
