Employment
Every job search engine has some fraudulent listings! Some job listings are created merely to obtain your name and e-mail address for employment agencies so they can try to charge you a fee. Some job listings are phishing scams designed just to get your personal and/or financial information for the purpose of stealing your identity. Research the company name (google, bing, yahoo, etc) before you
answer an advertisement to make sure that the company and the job exists. If you have any doubts call the company and ask to speak to the person in charge of hiring (the HR person in larger companies)
Never Pay A Fee In Advance For A Person or Agency To Find You Employment !
Most legitimate employment agencies will not charge you any money until after they have found suitable employment for you. Investigate a listing thoroughly before you sign a document or give your personal information.
Never give your social security, bank account or credit card number to a prospective employer through the internet or telephone. Report scams to the search engine you found them on.
Report scams to the FTC, IC3, local and state AG.
Most local and State Governments Offer Free Job Search Assistance
Local job search assistance can be found through your state unemployment agency.
Uou do not have to be unemployed to use these services, if you want to find a better, higher paying or more secure job, these agencies will usually help you find employers that are looking for good workers.
From The Wall Street Journal (edited)
Employment Ads on the Web Can Lead You to Marketing Pitches, or Worse;
A man was invited to interview for a position he had applied for through CareerBuilder.com. Before accepting, he called the search firm that posted the ad to ensure it was indeed a job opportunity. The man didn't want a repeat of two years ago, when he agreed to an interview in the same circumstances only to find there was no position available. Instead, he had received a pitch from a career-marketing service costing up to $10,000, starting with a $6,000 upfront fee. This time, however, he was assured by phone that the job was real and he wouldn't be asked to dig into his wallet. But after driving a half-hour from his home in
The New York Times, August 16, 2009 had a good article about how one single company, under various names, had posted most of the listings on CareerBuilder .com. Although the company convinced people to pay for extra services such as resume writing and interview skills workshops they rarely got anyone a job. I found this most interesting because my state's unemployment office,
Here is another good article from the New York Times:
August 5th 2009: Various online employment scams including one about person who was enticed by a "WORK FROM HOME" scam. They company in question sent the new employee U.S. Postal money orders for $8000 to buy a laptop and other items to set up his home office. He was directed to deposit the $8000 into his personal checking account and then purchase items from specific vendors. He sent checks from his account, never received any of the items and several weeks later found out from his bank that the postal money orders were counterfeit and he was out $6700. here is a link to the entire interesting article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/personaltech/06basics.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=online%20scammers%20target%20the%20jobless&st=cse
Update! NY Times, September 29, 2009....
Update on the story reported above, The state of
Check out The World Privacy Forum and their Job Searcher's Guide to Job Search Sites
Here’s a link to an interesting article about job search fraud
An article about job search fraud from the Pennsylvania Attorney General
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/consumers.aspx?id=276
An FTC website called LooksToGoodToBeTrue.com, here is a link to A page about job scams http://www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com/fraudtypes/jobscam.aspx
A Link To The FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center web page about employment scams www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx#item-7
Regarding privacy issues, Check out this article from the FTC website:
CVS Pays $2.25 Million to Settle Allegations of HIPAA Violations
Consumer Alert: Monster.com announces another big data breach.com announces another big data breach. http://idtheft.about.com/b/2009/01/26/monstercom-data-breach.htm
From The BBB Website (http://www.bbb.org/us/article/5392 )
BBB Advice: Look for Seven Red Flags when Searching for Jobs Online
The Following seven red flags the BBB advises jobs hunters to be on the look out for when using online resources:
Red Flag: Employer e-mails are rife with grammatical and spelling errors
Red Flag: E-mails purporting to be from job posting Web sites claiming there’s a problem with a job hunter’s account
Red Flag: An employer asks for extensive personal information such as social security or bank account numbers
Red Flag: An employer offers the opportunity To Become Rich From Home
5. Red Flag: An employer asks for money upfront ($$$For Background Checks)
6. Red Flag: The salary and benefits offered seem too-good-to-be-true
7. Red Flag: The job requires the employee to wire money through
The bottom line: Most job search engines charge companies to list their job offers so they get paid by the listing, for this and other economic reasons they rarely bother to check the validity of the submissions. They mostly rely on job seekers to report listing violations. I do so almost every day! You should do so also. Many unscrupulous employment agencies will create job offers just to get your e-mail address and phone number so they can trick you into doing business with them. If this happens to you, please report them to the search engine and to your state’s Attorney general.
I will continue my efforts to alert my fellow job seekers about job scams
so check back here every so often for more stories and suggestions.
Government agency websites to research regarding internet fraud:
The Federal Trade Commission http://ftc.gov/
Another FTC Website called ONGUARDONLINE http://www.onguardonline.gov/#
Yet Another Good FTC Website: http://www.LooksToGoodToBeTrue.com
The
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LooksTooGoodToBeTrue www.LooksTooGoodToBeTrue.com
If you are not sure which federal agency has jurisdiction over your inquiry or complaint, contact the Federal Citizen Information Center’s NATIONAL CONTACT CENTER at: 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-3646) or go their website http://www.consumeraction.gov/
Final Words: Remember, It is YOUR responsibility to act responsibly.
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© Fred Kahn www.fredkahn.com e-mail inquiries to: Fred@FredKahn.com