SCAM WARNING: Virtual Assistant & Executive Assistant Jobs

In recent months, criminal cyber scammers have posted advertisements for Virtual Assistants, Remote Assistants, and Executive Assistants on recruiting sites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Barefoot Student and are fraudulently using our employees names and illegally claiming to be employed by or authorized representatives of Mackay Communications, Inc.® and Mackay Marine.

At present, the cyber scammers are using the following emails which are not associated with Mackay: toni.desmet@mackay-marine.com and toni.desmet@mackaymarines.com. If you see one of these ads or are contacted by someone using these email addresses, or are suspicious about the legitimacy of an ad or individual, I would strongly encourage you to cease communication and to provide as much information you can about the job site and related communication to Toni.DeSmet@mackaycomm.com so that we can put a stop to this deception.

Protect yourself from scammers, below are the common signs of a fake job:

• If the advertised job is not listed on the company website – beware!
• There is no company logo or company overview attached to the job advertisement.
• Interviews are not conducted in-person.
• You are hired sight unseen.
• Legitimate companies do not use Gmail accounts to recruit.
• The language is grammatically incorrect, or sloppy, or otherwise unprofessional.
• When the same job description appears in multiple ads.
• Personal information is required immediately.
• When you are not asked to provide tax withholding information or standard new hire paperwork.
• When you receive a check issued by a company other than the one you were hired to work for – and it bounces.
• The position sounds too good to be true.
• The email address contains an ‘s’ such as Marines instead of Marine or does not match the company website.

The moment you become suspicious, don’t just Google the company, call them! Do whatever you can to protect yourself from cyber scammers.

If you want to verify the legitimacy of an advertised vacancy for our company or of an individual who contacted you about a job, please do not hesitate to contact
Toni DeSmet, VP of Global Human Resources at Mackay Communications, Inc.® at toni.desmet@mackaycomm.com or +1 919 850 3007.