For years, Richard Pierre found potential new hires on popular job-search websites through postings for positions like a high-paying gig as a programmer-analyst in Toronto. The problem: he was not an employer but a huckster who stole personal information from dozens of job seekers.
The Ottawa police finally busted Pierre, who in September pleaded guilty to fraudulently opening 44 credit-card accounts and racking up some $300,000 in charges. But countless other crooks like him are still out there. "When the economy is down, scammers take advantage of people who are anxious about their financial position," says Karen Hobbs, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A growing area of concern: unemployment-insurance fraud. Make a note now that you should never have to pay anybody to collect unemployment benefits.
The FTC has been cracking down on job scammers, shuttering firms like Job Safety USA, a front company that targeted people seeking maintenance and cleaning work. The company's ads claimed that for $98, Job Safety would send a credential called a "certificate registration number" and then help the registrant find a job. But the credential was bogus, and job placement allegedly never happened.
So how can you spot a scam? Certain frauds are easier to sniff out than others. A lot seems wrong with an ad that not only says you can earn $500 in two days but also urges you to "make money with every means you can get you hand on" and asks for "Status Of Job You Into."
If a company or recruiter asks for your bank-account or credit-card number, that is a huge warning sign. True, plenty of firms use bank information for direct-deposit paychecks--but that happens after you're hired.
Another big eyebrow raiser is a posting that includes an e-mail address with a domain like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! or Rediffmail (an Indian outfit). Most legitimate hirers have an e-mail address from their company.
Susan Joyce, publisher of employment portal Job-Hunt.org tries to weed out fake jobs, first by Googling the hiring firm. "If all you find are other job postings on other job boards, that's a red flag," she says. She also searches for a corporate phone number on a site like Hoovers.com and calls to make sure the opening is legit. That simple process leads her to toss about a third of the postings she receives.
The thing to be most careful about is handing over your Social Security number. There might be a legitimate reason for a company to ask for that information--to do a background check, say--but you should try to withhold it (and your date of birth) until after an in-person meeting.
Wary job hunters have been known to do battle with corporate recruiters on this point. But if you've been out of work for months and are starting to panic, you might be far from enthusiastic about the possibility of antagonizing a prospective employer. Still, it's worth at least a call to the human-resources department to make sure the policy is etched in stone. In the end, you're just trying to be thorough. And what employer wouldn't want that?