- Cloud
- Data Centers
- Managed Services
- Professional Services
- Security
- Partners
- Resources
- About Us
Menu
As employment landscapes continue to evolve, job seekers have not only gained new conveniences like remote work and online employee apps and portals—they’re also facing a uniquely contemporary threat: increasingly sophisticated employment scams.
Scammers are creating fake job postings at record levels, preying on hopeful applicants and attempting to extract sensitive information and money, fraudulently claiming these are the necessary next steps for “their new employees.”
Unfortunately, even with the utmost vigilance as scammers are sought and prosecuted, not even IT solutions companies like us are immune to scammers’ impersonation tactics.
We have created the following list of FAQs to raise awareness of this growing threat, while offering suggestions to verify postings and protect yourself.
The goal of these fraudulent postings and recruiters is to convince applicants to divulge personal information such as your social security number, a copy of your driver’s license, banking information and/or tax ID, or in other cases to deceive you into sending money to them.
Scammers’ tactics include creating fraudulent job postings for employment websites and social media platforms, contacting potential applicants (via private message, email, text or even phone) and even creating websites that either impersonate existing companies’ or invent them entirely.
When scammers are trying to pose as a legitimate company, they will often subtly misspell that company’s name in their email addresses, URLs or social media or job site accounts.
Report any job scams to the FTC, and to any company that’s been impersonated.
If you did happen to pay a job scammer, as soon as you have recognized the scam, take actions to reverse the transaction via the company/service you used and report the fraud.
See the FTC’s advice on your options if you have been scammed.
Whereas job scams used to be noticeably spammy, scammers’ tactics have become increasingly thorough and convincing.
Again, researching a company and speaking with a recruiter are baseline methods to confirm a job or company’s legitimacy.
Another recommended method is to cross-reference the position with the company’s list of available job opportunities on their career page.
The rise of these types of scams is due to a number of concurrent factors. First, technology is more widely available and easier to use, particularly with advents in AI.
Second, with the pandemic-influenced prevalence of online communication, it’s become unfortunately easy to let one’s guard down; we’re so often communicating online, job applications are posted and submitted online and the number of online, remote jobs has drastically risen as well. In short, we’re more comfortable than ever sharing vulnerable information online.
Lastly, with layoffs affecting numerous industries, job seekers may temporarily allow excitement or anxiety to override their otherwise stringent cybersecurity habits.