El Paso Police Say This Is An Old Scam But People Keep Falling For It

As if looking for a job isn't stressful enough, there is a scam out there that is designed to part you from your money.

The El Paso Police Department says foreign internet scammers will pretend to hire you and then send you payroll checks and tell you to wire or deposit the money into specific bank accounts. You are then told to keep the balance as advance payment, because employers do that all the time, right?

Of course, the checks are either as worthless as the paper they are written on, or they are stolen. If you put them in your bank account, it could wipe you out financially if they are cashed to the scammers before they are discovered to be bad checks. You could also be responsible for the lost funds.

Police say the best way to protect yourself against this type of scam is to realize that if something is too good to be true, it usually is. No employer is going to ask a person who just worked for them or who is trying to get a job with them to do any kind of financial transaction as part of the hiring process.

This is the oldest scam in the book. Don't fall for it.