I was targeted yesterday by a scammer. I had applied for a job writing for the company Roche, so I wasn't surprised when I got a text message from a guy, Randy Edward, claiming to be part of their HR. He told me that he wanted to do an IM interview through Yahoo. Okay, I've done IM interviews before. No problem.

The interview progressed just like any other. It got weird when he said that I needed to purchase some equipment from one of the software companies that they use and that they would reimburse me.

Now, I realize some legitimate companies work this way. Jack-in-the-Box, for example, requires employees to purchase non-slip shoes from one of their suppliers.

Still, I had a sneaky suspicion that this guy wasn't legit, so I contacted Roche. Here is the email I got this morning:

Dear Alina

Thank you for your interest in Roche.

Randy Edward is not working for Roche. Please be aware that there is a scam on several websites where fake "Roche" jobs are being posted. If you apply you will be interviewed via messenger which Roche will never do. In the end you will be requested to pay money for equipment to work from home. Roche will never extend an offer without a personal interview and will never charge any money for joining our company. Please ignore these kinds of advertisements. We are working with our legal department on this.

If you would like to apply for a position with Roche please visit our careers sitehttp://careers.roche.com where you can apply directly online for any vacancies that match your search criteria. If there are no current vacancies that meet your criteria, you have the opportunity to join the Roche Talent Pool. By joining the Roche Talent Pool you are registering your interest in joining Roche. Once you have registered, told us what sort of opportunities you are looking for and ticked the box to activate automatic alerts, we will email you to let you know if suitable positions become available. Please visit us at http://careers.roche.com.

We wish you the best in your job search.

Best regards

Natalie Zurbriggen

Corporate Webmaster

So, paying attention to my intuition paid off because I didn't give him any account information and I didn't purchase anything before I got the facts.

Next time you have a suspicious feeling, Google or contact the company directly! I Googled and it turns out that this is a common scam. Here is someone else targeted by the Roche scam.

By the way, this scammer's Yahoo IM is employmentdesk101. I ended up spamming his IM with this message: "Looks like you're going to jail!" Immature, I know, but it was fun.