Hello guys i want some help concerning a email. My field is microbiology and I am being offered a microbiology related job through lancaster labs. Funny thing is I never applied for the job and they were the one who approched me with the job. After being approached we had some exchange of emails and looks like they want to interview me on the phone next week. They have asked  for my personal information with consent for background check and my credit check as well.  I have to provide them with the information by tuesday. I am still not sure if this is a scam or is legmit. The corresponding emails does have @lancterlabs.com. I am thinking, when I am corresponding emails that has the company email addresses associated with, it is legitmate. Please can somebody with some more knowledge share some information on this.

Has nothing to do with IT gurus.

Is this the same company as in lancasterlabs.com?
If they say yes, call them up and verify that the request was made from the company. They won't mind it and might like the fact that you are proactively checking everything.

Next do a simple check on the company including BBB.com check. I didn't find any red fflag on google check but do it on your own.

If you still feel not 100% sure, let them know of your reservation and see if they can clarify it. You can ask them for interview first and background check later since it involves divulging ur info.

thank you mr stiffler for your answer. I tried to call them but because of the holiday season I could not get a very definate answer. They are supposed to interview me first and only get my personal information. I will try to get the answer before my interview but I still have the question about the email address.

"@lancterlabs.com"

did you miss "as' in between 'c' and 't' or it is exact copy from the email?. If they are from lancasterLabs, I guess it should be ..**@lancasterlabs.com assuming that their website is lancasterlabs.com

If you have never applied for job and never posted your resume online, it could be scam .

@default061, yes you are right I mean to say @lancasterlabs.com. I did not applied in that company and did not put my resume on any job borad because i have plan to go back to nepal in january for three months. They told me that i was referred by my university but did not have any more specific on that. Till now it seems like legit, but because of the holiday season could not get a very definate answer from the company. All i am asking if it is possible for a person to use some  registered business email address to scam another person?

about a year ago I applied to a job via my school's career website. They emailed me back the next day and told me I was a very good candidate for a managerial position. They asked me if I was still interested and obviously I said yes. They sent me a form to fill via post mail the following week. The form asked some personal questions like Date of birth, SSN, sex, and my bank account number. I immediately got suspicious and contacted my school to verify if this was a legit company. Turned out they were scammers based in Nigeria. Luckly I hadn't send them any of my information. 

Mooo I am pretty sure this is a scam but you can do little investigation like other guys in sajha suggested you. Some of my points are:

No companies can ask for your Personal information with out meeting you personally. Phone interview is one of many process to get a job.

You can see a phone interview as a screening process, to skim out people who they think are not fit for the job.
I have given several phone interviews before and none had asked me about my personal information.

Internet Fraud is a billion dollar business and you should play it safe buddy. Giving about SSN, Credit Card info etc would be nothing but a foolish and a desperate act.

You could Research the company and call them and ask if they are one contacting you.

I had a friend who almost got duped in scenario similar to yours. But luckily that person contacted that company only to found out there was no such offer.

P.S. My friend also got an email with a legit company domain address.

Hope it helps !

thanks to all of you guys for all the suggestions and thoughts. I just had the interview and it went smoothly. I did try to put my points about my hunch towards the process and they did clearify about it. So everything is perfect and looks like i might even end up getting that job. Anyways thanks to all of you guys. cheers!!!