According to Charlotte ABC-affiliate WSOC, 25-year-old Rissa Blackwell answered a job posting on the career search site Indeed.
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Blackwell said the posting was for a data entry job at a company called Wipro Limited. When she applied, Blackwell got the job.
"I was super excited that I had finally landed something, so it was the initial joy of, oh my goodness, I finally found a job, they're paying really well," Blackwell said.
But after she accepted, Blackwell said the con started. She said the scammers sent her checks and told her to deposit them into her bank account. While she waited for the funds to come through, she had to use her own money to buy gift cards for supplies for the job. She then read her new "employers" the numbers off the back of the gift card.
The checks were from a fake account, Blackwell said. She eventually realized the job offer was a scam.
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"So I'm out about $8,600-something dollars.
Wipro is a real company, but a warning on its website notes the organization has received a number of complaints about fake job offers.
"I felt really dumb at the time," Blackwell said. "I couldn't believe that I had even let somebody allow access to me to even do something like that. I just would hate for that to happen to anybody else."
According to the Better Business Bureau, job seekers should be wary of companies that ask new employees to wire money or employers that "overpay" with an initial check and ask employees to send money back. For more tips to spot a fake job scam, click here.