As if the job world
isn’t hard enough to navigate, many job seekers now have to worry
about falling victim to scams. These people target us with flashy ads and outrageous
offers that are usually too good to be true. But whether they’re
looking to steal your information, your money, or even you, they can
be outright dangerous. Some job search engines try to stop these
kinds of postings, but many of them fall short. Here are just a few
of my experiences with scammers.
One of the scarier
ones that I experienced targeted me as a teenager. In high school,
many of us would get texts and Facebook messages from people posing
as modeling agency recruiters. The woman showered me with compliments
and told me I had a career in modeling! She asked me to meet her at
an address in town to take some head shots and get me started. But
when I looked up the address that she sent, I saw it was in an odd,
mostly empty lot of shopping centers on the edge of town.
Unfortunately this is the reality, so I feared the worst. If I go
meet this stranger at a random address, will I be ambushed? When I
pressed for more information, careful to not give away anything
personal, she inevitably started dodging questions until she stopped
replying completely. When I looked closer at her profile, I noticed
that it, too, looked odd. Very new profile, unnaturally staged and
airbrushed pictures, and no comments from friends or family on any of
her posts. We’ve all seen those kinds of phishing profiles. Now,
this is not to say that all teenage modeling agencies are scams, but
people have to be smart and conscious of red flags when they receive
job offers.
Red flags are things
that don’t seem right. Things like bad grammar and misspelled words
in a job posting, dodging questions, and promises that sound too good
to be true, are all common signs that something is wrong.
Just a few weeks
ago, I was contacted by an elaborate scam job that almost fooled me.
I had been applying to jobs left and right, so I sometimes forgot the
job descriptions by the time the companies responded. I received an
email from an insurance company about a data entry job that I’d
supposedly applied to. Here’s the email I was sent, verbatim except
for the blocked out names:
Dear Ciara,
How are you today ? Thank you for applying with ########. This is
to inform you that we received your resume/cover letter regarding
your job applied with us as Data Entry Clerk but unfortunately the
position has been taken but will be open again by 27th June. I have a
personal assistant position with our CEO/President Bill ###### whom
is currently on a business trip in Toronto, Canada which you can
attain now and transition to the Data Entry Clerk by 27th June after
your interview with me as you are the only qualified and credible
applicant for the job and surely I can guarantee you the position
when it open with a proper recognition.
Letter from CEO/President
Bill ######
I am looking for someone who can handle my personal and business
errands at his/her spare time. Someone who can offer the services
listed such as receiving calls and reporting back to me what
information you got from clients, replying emails and printing
invitation for exhibitions, shopping for gifts and materials,bills
payments and monthly donation to foster homes as well as receiving
payments from clients when am not around. You will work on the
average of about 5 - 10hrs per week and I will start by paying you
$500 per week which will rise to $600 depending on how effective you
are, the job will start from the moment you start running errands.
This job is temporary and could possibly be a permanent one for you
based on how you deliver your duties, we will talk more when am back
and you can take part more in my successfully growing business. All
expenses and taxes will be paid by me including your weekly salaries
and bonuses .Once again, I will provide clear set of instructions for
each task I needed done as well as the funds to cover them mailed to
you by my financial adviser with a certified payment check.
Note: This position is home-based and flexible part time job, you
can be in any location, work from your home doing all the activities
and doesn't affect your present job if you're employed at the moment.
DO CONFIRM ACCEPTANCE OF THIS POSITION BY PROVIDING THE BELOW
DETAILS. SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO DECLINE THE OFFER, KINDLY SEND AN EMAIL
STATING THAT, SO THE APPLICATION CAN BE KEPT OPEN FOR ANOTHER PERSON.
Full Names(First and Last):
Current Mailing Address(Physical Address) :
Apartment # :
City, State, Zip Code :
Cell Phone Number:
KINDLY SEND AN EMAIL WITH THE DETAILS TO MR BILL ###### PERSONAL
EMAIL : bill@######.com
Thanks and do the needful.
Crystal #######
Human Resources Director
This email had
several red flags to me. Not only did they want to offer me this
position without so much as an interview, but now they wanted me to
be a personal assistant to their CEO? On top of that, the horrible
grammar, the extremely high pay rate, and the demand for all of my
personal information right away made me think twice.
I looked into the
website, seeing if I could validate these names, this position, and
this company in general. I found a very professional website for the
company, complete with pictures and names of those people. However, I
couldn’t find any contact information for this HR director, and I
also couldn’t find any job postings for this company at all. I
forwarded this message to the one email address I could find for this
company, asking if this is a legitimate message. Low and behold, I
never heard back from either of them ever again.
A few weeks later, I
received a message from the job posting site I had applied through
warning me that that job posting was a scam. They took down the
posting, and let all of us know that that company had posted fake
applications to scam applicants into giving away personal
information. It’s great that sites like this try to screen for
these scams, but they can’t catch everything.
These days, people
have to be very careful when applying to jobs. There are countless
articles out there on identifying these scams, and it is
unfortunately more common than ever. The best thing we can do is
spread the word about them, post the emails just like I did and check
in with the companies when you are unsure. Help other job seekers to
spot them, and always be cautious when meeting people or giving out
your information. It might not be a candidate that they’re after.
