Christine is looking for a new job, and she found this neat little credit report scam. The scam is pretty transparent in this case, but we thought we’d put it out there as a reminder anyway. Remember, if you want a truly free credit report, only use annualcreditreport.com. Everything else comes with a hidden cost or enrollment in a billed membership—and if a potential employer inists on a specific “free” service that isn’t free when you read the fine print, you can be pretty sure it’s a scam.

Here’s the email Christine received when she responded to a help wanted ad:

From: Hiring Manager <[redacted]@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 4:22 PM

Hello,

Thanks for responding to our listing so promptly. This job is very straight forward. Basically, you will be answering the phone, scheduling meetings, and running company errands, but we really need someone to answer the phone. When running errands we will be providing you with a company credit card.

Due to bad experiences with this in the past however, before we can send you an application, a credit score from freecreditpage.com/Free is required.

When you submit your information they will send you your credit check, and when you email us your given credit score we can send you your application. Once your application is received I will call you to schedule a face to face interview.

Finally, we have full and part time positions available, so please send us your available work hours. Best Wishes!

Sincerely,

Bryan Smith,
Hiring Manager

Christine wrote back,

I will be more than happy to furnish a credit report, at my own expense, even, but only from one of the three main credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax.

Of course, she hasn’t heard back from Bryan since.

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Update: Julia789 found a CraigsList ad with identical language. Thanks, Julia!

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