So I’m pretty sure I’ve been scammed, i just wanna post this here in hopes that it saves someone making the same mistake.

Last week, I recieved an email from the hiring manager at a green energy company called Eviny. They said they’d reviewed my application for a remote data entry position and wanted to schedule an interview with me.

As someone who’s been job hunting for nearly six months with little to show, this was super exciting to me, so I wrote them back, and we were able to schedule an interview for the same day(red flag no.1 probably).

The interview was conducted through the messaging app Telegram, which should’ve been a red flag no.2 for me, but I know friends who’ve used Telegram for work related things, and I was actively researching the company as we were messaging and saw that it was a legit company and the hiring manager’s name checked out, so I let it slide.

Interview went fine, it was standard questions about my skills, job history, why I think I would a good match for this company, etc. They sent off my info to their team to review, and they messaged me about half and hour later saying that I’d been approved and that they’d be emailing the official job offer and the necessary forms the next morning, and that I just needed to check-in in the mornings at 8am to keep up to date on what needed done/training schedules/etc.

The next day, everything showed up in my email. Job offer, official hiring forms, tax forms, employee code of conduct packet, everything you’d normally expect, my partner and mother-in-law even looked at them and saw nothing weird, so I filled them out and sent them back. They also sent me a digital check to buy a laptop for work use.

This is where the problem started. Bc I typically use direct deposits and online banking, I needed to do an additional verification before they would allow the check to be submitted.

Okay, no biggie. I sent the hiring manager updates, saying it would take an extra day for the verification, and that I would send confirmation once the check was deposited. all fine.

The next day, when I submitted the check, it wouldn’t go through. I messaged them explaining what happened and asking what to do, and recieved no response.

I messaged my hiring manager again later in the day on the thought of maybe they missed my message or were just out of office, still nothing. I was starting to get that sinking feeling that something wasn’t right.

It’s now been over four days since I’ve heard from them.

I contacted them on linkedin and sent an email to their main office, so we’ll see if they get back to me. I just keep thinking of all the signs I should’ve noticed, but I was just so relieved to finally hear back from someone that I missed them.

Idk if there’s anything else I can do right now, I’m just upset and wanted to vent and hopefully warn others to be on the lookout for similar things.