Job Scams Spring Up like Weeds, Protect Yourself

Springtime has a couple of things in common, neither of them good—weeds and job scams. The first chokes out the green grass. The second rip-offs earnest job seekers.

To get rid of the weeds, put down herbicides. For scams, job seekers should apply common sense, liberally, year-round.

According to the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Report, common cons—new and old—include:

• Placement scams – Hoodwinking applicants (even executives), complete with big upfront fees, rigged recruiting and phony job interviews.
• Tech-support shams – Suckering in computer users with purported IT problems, only to have their devices hijacked and personal information stolen—all while being sold virus protection.
• Work-at-home schemes – Playing out often in our on-demand contact center industry, with fraudulent promises of flexible hours and fast, easy money.

Many frauds are both textbook and text, with online customer services suffering more than their share of shady shakedowns.

At Working Solutions, applicants tell us about deceptions they’ve encountered recently, such as:

• “Suspect” interviews – Trying to get job seekers to talk with so-called recruiters through chat apps, such as Viper, or on Google Hangouts.
• Personal data dumps – Asking job applicants for their bank account information, credit-history details or Social Security number.
• Gullible gift cards – Telling candidates to buy gift cards for job-initiation fees, then give scammers the 16-digit ID number and scratched off 4-digit PIN.