Mrs.J

Score the trifecta!

The panels have been up since 2013.

I see our friend the Extreme Cold Watch is back.

Yeah the “interview” process was strange. But I have seen this done before and is usually used to select out serious candidates. But the move from this process directly to a job offer without a face to face was one of the red flags that went up. You are correct though with AI this is just going to get tougher and tougher. Glad I could help so she knows what is going on out there. It honestly needs to be talked about more. But so many who experience it are embarrassed for falling for it. So they don’t. She is all good. Preparing for her face to face interview for an internship on Monday. So are we. It could have gone really south really quick. The fact that she has not heard anything from the person after Tuesday night tells me they knew she caught on and cut her loose as it was a loss of time for them. Unfortunately probably moved onto the next person. Scary that it is even happening to businesses as well. Did not know there is a state fraud center. This might be worth sending to them. Thanks all. One good thing is we had told her to not say anything to family as we thought it would be a surprise when she graduates. But because of this I have no one to open up to and it was really getting to me. I know I do not post much on this thread. It honestly moves to quick for me and I like to give every post a good read. But it was the only place that I felt comfortable with posting to.

Yes it is. And when you think you know all the ways out there they just keep reinventing themselves. Having been an art student myself I would have been over the moon with a commission so know what your acquaintances daughter went through. What we want now is the company that was directly spoofed to respond back to us. Because it was not until the end that the pieces fell into place. Their logo was used, contact name was used in the initial contact. Mr. J is giving them today to respond then he will try to call them. He wants to alert them that their name is being used in this manner. Not sure if they will care or not but if it was my company I would want to know.

That is the reason I posted it. It can happen to anyone. And being a victim myself knows too well the years it takes to get things right. Me knowing that even just you letting your daughter and wife know it makes my post worthwhile. As my daughter is a film and media studies major she has a YouTube channel. She has been doing a weekly vlog and intends to spotlight this. She was a lucky one I am sure there are others out there who have not been.

So something happened this week that I need to put in writing I am so mad. So the oldest Ms. J is in her last semester. And is looking everyday and applying for jobs in this shitty market. Fast forward this week, Monday to be exact. She finally gets an interview for an internship. But on the same day she got contacted for another job that would be exactly what she would like to have. Local DC communications company, would be remote and good benefits and pay. With all the jobs she has replied to lately she did not remember applying to this one. An interview is set up over Microsoft Teams. It is one of those interviews where you are sent questions and then you have to record yourself with a 1 minute answer. Weird but I have seen interviews like these used to narrow down candidates. She is told that she would hear something back the following day. She gets contacted again through Microsoft Teams and asked if she is available to talk over the phone at a certain time on Tuesday. Let me just say here that Mr. J was already kind of surprised that someone who would be fresh out of school would even be considered for this job but we are all kind of caught up in the excitement. Anyways she lets us know she is offered the job and with an after graduation start date. Perfect right?? Well that is where the red flags started to pop up. She had class into the night and then one of her club meetings after so we had not had the time to talk with her. She asked should she cancel the interview for the internship and Mr. J said until you have a signed contract no. So we asked her about the contract. 2 pages, only 2 pages and what was on those 2 pages made the Spidy sense of Mr. J go off. He started digging. Mind you Ms. J had already checked into the name of the person who originally sent the first contact. He was an employee. But the person who called her was someone calling from an AZ phone number and had a thick accent. And his email to send the “contract” to ended not with a .com. In said “contract” it listed the job posting again and all the benefits, which mind you was what was exactly on the companies website. The second page was asking for proof of rent, ID, SS, passport and bank info for “direct deposit” At the bottom was a line for the start date and it was left blank even though she had given a start date. She was to fill out the paperwork and send it back by the end of business on Wednesday. We told her to send us what she had gotten and started to try to connect the dots. Told her to hold off sending anything until we dug a bit more. As a victim of ID theft back in the day I started to get that sick feeling in my gut. She was contacted one more time Tuesday evening saying that she can send the info that night. She did not even have anything printed out and replied she would the next day. Between that and the digging that Mr. J was doing we told her to not send anything at all. That is was looking more and more like a phishing scheme that we had never seen before. What set off his concern was the salary that was being given to someone with her qualifications. Mr. J immediately found an email to the company that was being spoofed asking if in fact she had been given a job offer. We have yet to hear back from them but were 100% sure that she should not send off any sensitive information. You guys… this world sucks! This kid has been busting her ass to not only finish college but has been stressing over not being a burden on us. Which she will never be and was told as such. She is working 2 jobs and making contacts. And wants a job she wants to be self sufficient. I feel absolutely gutted for her. She still has her interview for the internship but after what just happened she went back in to check if she even applied for this. And cross reference the contact with the actual company. This one checks out and will actually be a face to face interview. She will now be keeping a spread sheet of what she applies for on top of the email trail. We are glad that she still feels close enough to us to keep us in the loop. Because had she not this could have ended very badly. Sorry for this being so long but I needed to put my thoughts out in words with people not connected directly. Everyone enjoy this sunny day.

40 deg and sun. The solar panels finally warmed up enough to let loose. Went out to clear the drive with my ears on the rest of the other half. It did go while I was clearing. But heard it and went down into the street.

We were looking at Puerto Rico or the USVI. But then the reality of us wanting to do new flooring made us put the hold on.

I have been looking at warm weather trips the past couple of days. We want to put in some new flooring in our lower level but with this cold we are not exactly wanting to rip up carpet.

Have started to see some of that up here. Went out for the first time today. While I knew our neighborhood would be sub par to get out of I was surprised at the interesting plowing conditions on the main roads. Lanes just going into the middle of the roads and some just stopping all together making you veer off into the shoulder or median. And the amount of street parked cars in my neighborhood when everyone has a driveway. The streets that are the extra wide ones are reduced to single lane due to the plowed in cars. The combination of the sleet and cold temps have turned the snow into an almost glacial pack. Even getting that blue hew from chunks that I broke up on our deck to get to the bird feeder.

Ok so what is up with this. Mr.J is headed into the office this morning. Looks like I need to alert him.

Low was 9.3 at 7:30 am. Up to 14 currently. Going to go out and chip out some left over snow at the end of the drive in the street that the plow ran over. The older Ms. J in DC got another day of campus closed and zoom classes. The younger Ms. J in PA will be trucking across campus for classes as campus is open today. Told her welcome to school in the North. Told her my memory of walking to class at my school in NW Ohio and got into the building with my eye lashes frozen together due to the wind chill.

I live on a Square. Farthest point back in our neighborhood. As it is all townhouses we are HOA maintained. They came in several times during the storm. Some areas you can see pavement but it is mostly snow packed down. As of the rest of the neighborhood have no idea. Being single family homes it is County maintained. Mr.J works from home on Mondays so we have not checked the status of roads. Will have to though as he drives a MX 5. He may just be taking my EV6 to work tomorrow if the neighborhood is packed down snow. We got the AWD dual motor and it has a snow mode vs his RWD manual.

Upon seeing the back edge on radar we went out for what we hope is our last driveway clear. Totals are 6” snow and 4” sleet. The sleet was the worst to clear off of the driveway. Was like shoveling sand.