Name of the company the scammer pretended to work for: Artisan Talent
Real company name: Artisan Talent
Number of interviews: Unknown (probably many)
Where to find job: It doesn’t exist. It’s a scam to get unsuspecting job seekers to scan a QR code and that QR code grants scammers access to the phone of the person to get their personal information and scam their contacts.
The fake email address: carolinaimhoff@hr-artisantalent.work
Backstory:
I was contacted by a user on LinkedIn who wanted me to check out an email she was sent regarding a job opportunity. She was suspicious because of the misspelling of the name, and she was right to be because this turned out to be a scam. A sophisticated one at that.
This scammer pretended to be a real recruiter, Caroline Imhoff from Artisan Talent.
The real recruiter’s profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-imhoff-6a941285/
The imposter, “Carolina Imhoff” doesn’t have one on LinkedIn.
The email starts in the usual scammer fashion, overly flattering to weaken the target’s defenses. “The projects and offers are too exciting for me to pass them here onto writing.” This is a ploy to entice the job seeker to want to learn more. A real recruiter leads with the job description and a link to the posting, a fake one makes you jump through hoops to find it.
The scammer uses the real image of Caroline to sell legitimacy but has a Calendly QR code to schedule time. No real recruiter uses QR codes for scheduling meetings. The normal process is to choose a time and then you’ll receive email confirmation.
⚠ Never scan a QR code you can’t verify first ⚠
If you do, the QR code will likely take you directly to a website without knowing what information or URL is stored in the QR Code. Even worse, you’ll be redirected to a page that tries to install malicious software on your smartphone or calls a premium rate number.
The scammer will ghost you since they already have what they set out to get. They’ve infiltrated your phone for your personal information, now they have access to your contact list and will do the same to those people by sending them messages pretending to be you.