With unemployment rates high around the country, chance are that you know someone that may be looking for a job. Today’s spoof warning is to make sure you are aware that there is an increase in criminal actors using fake job postings with legitimate company names to target applicants’ personal information. These job listings can appear on legitimate and popular job sites which makes it hard to tell. All job postings should be treated with higher caution and scrutiny.
According to the FBI, job postings are being seen across multiple job sectors, and spoof legitimate company websites and email domains. Some pose as an HR person, others as a recruiter, and they usually conduct gathering personal information over email, but have been seen also doing this over the phone. In some cases, the applicant was asked by a supposed recruiter or representative to submit payment information to process their application.
Advise to give:
- Job postings found on an online job website will usually also be listed on that companies official website.
- Check any HR or recruiter’s email address to verify it is the same as the official companies email address. Sometimes these are cleverly masked by using an rn in place on an m for example.
- If anything about the application process does not feel right, then it probably isn’t.
- An applicant can always call the company using the phone number on their website and not the one on the job posting to verify the listing.
Daniel Weatherly
