Job Offer Scams

This article will serve as an awareness article for job seekers. In this article I will give you some tips on how to avoid giving your information to unscrupulous souls who prey on people who are job hunting through either the phone or email.

First thing is to never give your social security number to anyone for a job unless you have met with these people or can tell without a doubt they are legitimate.

Keep a list of places you have submitted your resume so you can look back and see if this particular job is coming from a place you have posted your resume. Keep in mind that even if you did apply on their website first and added them to your list, this alone does not make them legitimate. Make sure you check them out first.

Some signs the offer might be a scam:

Pay is too high for the type of job offer
If you already know the pay range for a particular position is normally $25K - $35K and they offer more for you to do it from home - beware. They will make the job offer sound really good to you. If you are not sure what the job should pay, check out http://salary.com.

You get an offer and have never heard of the company.
There will be plenty of times we get a job offer and have never heard of the company. The job could very well be legitimate, but it would serve you well to do a little investigation. Visit google.com or yahoo.com and type in the name of the company or their full web address to see if there are any comments or news about them. Another way is to visit a domain registrar like http://godaddy.com and do a search on the web address/domain name and see if the name matches the name given in your email. From what I can tell, most companies have their info listed, but some will have a private registration. What you should look for is the "real" name of the company and then do a search on that too. If you use godaddy to do a search and the name comes up as "already taken", click on the link for "get more info" which is located to the right of the domain name. One more place to visit would be http://ripoffreport.com to see if anyone has complained about them there too.

You visit their website and there is no way to contact them.
Nowadays, it is almost considered bad business to call a company to ask about open jobs, but if they have no way to contact them on their website, then I consider this suspicious. They should have contact information on their site even if it is used for their clients only.

You get an offer and know for sure you have not used that particular email address to apply for jobs.

For me, when I get a job offer from a company and I know for sure I have not applied for a job with them using the email address I got the job offer in, I consider them suspect. How did they get my email address? Sure wasn't from me.

To add to the above, I use an email account solely for job hunting. When I get a job offer in an email account I have not used, this is a clear sign to me the email is bogus.

Using an email solely for job hunting is a good way to customize your email address. If you are an Information Architect, you could use an email like: InfoArch@whatever.com or if you are a Customer Service Representative, you could possibly use CSR@whatever.com or peopleperson@whatever.com or MSCertified@whatever.com if you have a Microsoft Certification. Let your imagination work for you. Using an email account solely for job hunting will help you get organized with your job hunting. This is also a good way to keep up with who you sent a resume too.

They want you to pay a fee of some kind.
No way! Don't do it! Come on, if you are looking for a job, you don't need to be "paying" for someone to hire you or even paying for someone to hook you up with an employer! This is clearly a way to play on our desperation to find a good paying job. It's also an excellent way to play on the psyche of a lazy job hunter. If you don't want to hunt for a job on your own, you will be hunted and robbed of your hard earned money.

They don't mention the type of job.
I know curiosity is there, but don't bother with this type of job offer. They obviously have something to hide. In my experience it was a pyramid scheme or something similar.

They want you to give them your friends email addresses.
Why do they need your friends email addresses? To con them too. Do your friends a favor and do not give out their email addresses without their consent.

DON'T UNSUBSCRIBE TO ANYTHING YOU HAVE NOT SUBSCRIBED TO
When you get these offers you may see a link for you to "unsubscribe". Don't do it! This is used to verify your email address. Once you click on the link, they have verified that someone is using the email address and you had better get ready to receive all kinds of spam.

Even if you fall for a scam or two, don't feel stupid about it (at least not for long). So many scams sound legitimate and their websites look professional, but if you don't do a little investigation, you will always be a victim. INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE!

Good luck to all and remember: If it sounds too good to be true - it AIN'T true!

About the Author

Regina Stevens teaches basic website design and how to use Microsoft applications. She also, as a hobby, writes computer and IT job market articles that can be found on many websites.