Avoiding Scam Jobs Online

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate has risen consistently each month since August of 2008. Currently 9.4 percent of the American population is without work, which means that many people are now in the process of a job search.

Thanks to the Internet we now have an amazing amount of job listings literally at our fingertips. The problem with this is that on top of all of the real jobs online, there are also many scam artists out there looking to take advantage of unsuspecting people.

Simply being aware of the signs of a scam job can help protect you from becoming a victim. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, there are several red flags to be on the look out for. Many of these scam job creators take the time to write up what will seem like a legitimate position in many ways.

In many cases the individual creating these fake job listings won’t take the time to check spelling and grammar. If an ad contains a large amount of mistakes, this could be a sign that it is not legitimate.

Another sign that an employer is not what they seem to be is that they have an e-mail address that is not a primary domain. This means that the company won’t have a professional sounding name after the @ sign. Instead they will use Yahoo, Gmail or other popular e-mail providers.

Other times it is not until the jobseeker has gotten into contact with the so-called “employer” that these things will become noticeable.

For starters, no real employer will request that a job applicant give them their Social Security number via e-mail. A person asking for this is likely hoping to steal the jobseekers identity, so under no circumstance send this information. The same goes for Driver License numbers or a scanned image of this I.D. Real employers get this information during an interview.

Other scam job listings are geared towards trying to get money from those hoping to find employment. After getting into contact with the job seeker, these individuals will often try to pass themselves of as recruiters. They will say that they will find the person a job after receiving a specified amount of money. Any individual requesting a wire-transfer or Paypal payment is not a real employer.

If you have been the victim of a job scam, The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse suggests not only closing your bank account, but also changing banks. The latter helps to avoid the scam artist tricking a teller into giving them information about the new account. For other suggests, Click here.