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| Article Listing | Search Articles | More Articles in Scams | More Articles by globaltarget.com |
Bogus Job Offers - How to detect Fake offers |
| by globaltarget.com - 11/18/2006 |
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"Beware and be extra careful specially the spam mails that are sent as legitimate job offers. There are thousands of fraudsters asking to send bank details, personal info and even funds. DO NOT send any such info.
How to Detect Bogus Job Ads
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Job Search Safety Tips
We know of four specific instances of fraudulent job ads being posted on online job
search sites. This is one of them. Because fraudulent job ads appear to be “slipping
through,” it is important that whenever looking for a job online, job seekers remember to
be extremely cautious about responding to job ads, especially for jobs overseas. Just
because a job ad is on a well-known job site does not mean the job is not a scam.
Below are the key tips for identifying job scams before you get snared.
The 2003 Job Search Privacy Study at the World Privacy Forum has additional
information about job searching and privacy www.worldprivacyforum.org
According to the World Privacy Forum, key indicators of job scams are
the following:
1. After responding to the job ad, the company wants job seekers to give up highly
personal information via email. Unfortunately, many legitimate companies are
beginning to ask for highly personal information from job applicants via email. This
makes it more difficult to weed out the scams. In general, never give up bank
account information, credit card information, or physical details about eye color,
height, hair color, etc.
2. A company asks for SSN or bank account information via email.
3. The company is less than one year old.
4. The website for the company that is indicated by the sender’s email address does
not exist or is “under construction.”
5. A check of the domain name of the company in www.domainwhitepages.com gives
highly contradictory information. For example, Macrocommerce says it is a
European company based in Berlin, Germany. But a check of
www.macrocommerce.org on domainwhitepages shows that Macrocommerce is
actually based in Maryland and is owned by someone other than Macrocommerce.
You may be dealing with a subsidiary of a company, or you may have found a
problem. When you find contradictory ownership information combined with a
request for bank account numbers, consider the job ad a fraud and don’t
respond to it.
6. Although it is not always an indicator of fraud, notably poor spelling throughout a job
ad can tip you off that there may be a problem, especially when found in conjunction
with other factors such as no Web site, etc.
What to Do if You have Already Responded to the Macrocommerce Ad
If any job seekers have received and responded to this email or company, we
recommend that you take proactive steps to protect yourself from harm.
Page 4
Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse recommends that affected job seekers
take the following steps to combat this type of fraud:
1. Cancel the bank account in question.
2. Get a new account and put a password on your new account. Avoid using easily
guessed or discovered passwords. Mother’s maiden name, date of birth, SSN, and
pets’ names are examples of weak passwords. Instead, make up a phrase that is
easy to remember. “A marathon run,” “notebook paper,” and other such simple
phrases are much stronger passwords and provide more protection.
3. Watch all existing bank accounts very carefully in the coming months, and order a
credit report. You may do this by calling the three credit reporting bureaus, Equifax
at (800) 685-1111, Experian at (888) 397-3742, and TransUnion at (800) 888-4213.
4. If you believe your Social Security Number is compromised, you would typically
place fraud alerts at the three credit bureaus. However, this scam does not appear
to compromise the SSN. If you wish, just to be on the careful side, you may still want
to put fraud alerts on as a pro-active measure. That way if somebody attempts to
obtain credit in your name you will be contacted by the credit issuer. Equifax at (800)
525-6285, Experian at (888) 397-3742, and TransUnion at (800) 888-4213.
5. If you decide not to put a fraud alert on your credit report, be sure to order your
credit report in the next three months just to make sure that your financial identity
has not been compromised.
6. Notify the Web site hosting the job about the scam. This way, they can take
appropriate action by either removing the offending ad and/or making sure the
person who posted the ad is no longer able to do so on their site.
7. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by going to their website
at www.ftc.gov and clicking the link in the upper navigation bar for File a Complaint
or by calling the FTC at (877) 382-4357.
8. File a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ifccfbi.gov.
For more detailed information about how to handle identity theft, please see Fact Sheet
NB: Many victims seem to have been contacted by the scammers as a result of them putting up a CV at sites like Monster.com, Totaljobs.com and Careerbuilder.com. The criminals often use the titles of genuine companies in their scam mailings. Some will appear below, but of course these companies have no relationship with the scammers, they are just another category of victim.
List of fake job offers |
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