Fighting Scammers
Written on 23rd Sept, 2023
The job hunting process is challenging enough on its own but recently nefarious individuals with malicious intentions have been trying to take advantage of the process to scam the hard-working citizen for a quick buck. We, at Particella (formerly known as DNAlite Therapeutics, Inc. - dnalite.com), are committed to helping you make sure you are not being taken advantage of by these scammers. We also want to ensure that those who are undergoing a real interview process with Particella feel comfortable that they are exploring real opportunities. Recently, we received multiple emails from folks earnestly looking for job positions who were being contacted from scammers impersonating Particella employees.
Overtime, these scammers have become more sophisticated and we encourage you to be vigilant. In one instance, the scammers were using a “particella.us” domain name which redirected to our website (particella.bio). We contacted the domain host (namecheap.com) which kindly took down the fake website. The domain was registered under an email address with a fake domain name that further redirected to a different illegitimate company. Remember, anyone can sign up for a domain name and often those who worship money have already stolen credit cards to buy domains with. We are, unfortunately, not alone in being a target of scammers and even large companies have been unable to stop the impersonation.
Your best protection is yourself and in order to help you we have made a table below for you to qualify if you’re being contacted by a true Particella representative or a scammer. If you’re still not sure, you can use the “Contact” button in the navigation bar and confirm whether we are truly in contact with you as part of a hiring process. We will never hold this against you in our hiring process as we have all been victims or almost been victims of scammers.
And remember, we will never make a job offer without at least a video or in-person interview
If you were being scammed… now what to do?
Report through our contact button so we can keep track. Also report to the FBI.
Waste the scammers time in your downtime. This actually hurts them as it distorts the economics of their business. Make them work at odd hours. Most of them are outside of the US and are working the night shift. Force them to call you in their morning (your night) and waste their time.
Contact vigilantes who go after scammers
Send them already used gift cards
Report their email to their domain name host (example to Microsoft for Outlook emails).