Former Rhode Island DJ Nearly The Victim Of Job Scam

Mulhern

BRIAN MULHERN was the morning co-host on HALL COMMUNICATIONS Country WCTK (CAT COUNTRY 98.1)/ PROVIDENCE until OCTOBER last year when he was let go (NET NEWS 10/31/22). Like anyone else, his next thoughts included finding a new job, so he cast a wide net, using a number of job-listing websites to find his next gig, posting resumes, and hoping for the best. He thought his prayers were answered when he received an email from a company calling itself G/O MEDIA. However, that dream nearly became a nightmare.

MULHERN told SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP WJAR-TV (NBC 10)/PROVIDENCE, R.I., “Right away as a skeptic I Googled them. I put the company name fraud, company name scam, even though it looked very official. I could not find anything about this company that seemed odd or suspicious.”

As it turned out, G/O MEDIA is a legitimate publishing and media company that runs GIZMODO, DEADSPIN, and others, and is based in NEW YORK CITY. 

Believing it was an opportunity, MULHERN responded to the email. The interview process began for the podcast producer position he had applied for, and after a second interview, he was offered a job, or so he thought.

Just before he accepted, he was contacted by someone through LINKEDIN who was also interested in podcasting, because, as he was told, he was about to be interviewed by someone named BRIAN MULHERN with HUBBARD BROADCASTING.

MULHERN told WJAR-TV, “He had applied for a podcast producer position with HUBBARD BROADCASTING, which is another legitimate company, and he said that he was told his interview was going to be conducted by BRIAN MULHERN. Because he was able to hear me online, there’s plenty of evidence out there, he said your voice did not match the voice of the guy that I spoke with. As a matter fact, he had an accent, as did my guy.”

MULHERN was just about to give the representative who claimed he was with G/O MEDIA his banking information for what he was told were payroll purposes, but after that call, realized something was dangerously wrong.

He then tried unsuccessfully to contact G/O Media, before deciding to call the RHODE ISLAND STATE POLICE which, after a short investigation, alerted MULHERN he was the victim of a job scam.  

As they quickly discovered, the person who interviewed MULHERN who claimed to be an executive with G/O MEDIA also posed as an executive for HUBBARD BROADCASTING, allegedly impersonating MULHERN, and interviewed the other man.

According to WJAR-TV, the police were able to track the individual posing as a G/O MEDIA rep to a location somewhere in the MIDDLE EAST, and who allegedly had hacked the G/O MEDIA website previously. 

You can read more about what happened to MULHERN, and see the investigative report conducted by WJAR-TV here.

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