Today’s job search is challenging enough without the added worry of applying to a fake employer. Similarly, companies face the risk of hiring a fraudulent job seeker or an employee who might share the company’s private data with a deceitful coworker. Scammers are escalating their identity theft schemes to unprecedented levels. 

Scammers disguise themselves as fake employers, recruiters, career coaches, HR executives, employees, and job candidates. The news and social media are filled with stories of unsuspecting employees and job seekers falling victim to scams. It may only be a matter of time before scammers successfully convince real employers to hire a bogus employee. 

The latest job scams reveal new ways scammers obtain private data. Job scamming is a global problem, not just in the U.S. Incidents in other countries and smaller communities in the U.S. indicate layered and sophisticated threats to privacy:

• “ResumeLooters” recently breached job portals in Asia, accessing millions of private profiles. The information contained more than two million names, numbers, and other personally identifiable data. 
• College students have experienced job scams through school emails containing fake job offers. 
• A Hong Kong company employee unknowingly encountered deepfakes of U.K. coworkers in a fake video call, resulting in a 25-million-dollar company loss. 
• Singapore news outlets reported that there were thousands of victims of job scams in 2023. 

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Private data is the gold mine all scammers want.

Your private data is your identity; thieves will use it more than a used car. It gains value over time and is exploited repeatedly for current and future scams. These perpetrators are identity thieves aiming to exploit your information.

They engage in various activities, such as:

Spear Phishing: Scammers send enticing offers via email, luring victims to click on a link that leads to a deceptive but convincingly real employment site. This includes networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter posts, search engine listings, etc., making it appear as close to the actual company as possible. The Purdue email scam is a prime example of how they can infiltrate a server to disseminate a slew of counterfeit, yet genuine-looking, opportunities. The FTC has documented incidents in colleges and high schools. 

Identity Theft: Scammers use stolen data to impersonate individuals, attempting to deceive creditors, employers, employees, vendors, and others. They employ public profiles from various sources to present themselves as legitimate entities. Most victims may perform a cursory check if they are suspicious, but only a few investigate thoroughly enough to confirm the legitimacy of the transaction, often leading to negative outcomes.

Fake W-2 Scams: Scammers have discovered novel methods to defraud companies. Last year, Experian reported that scammers found employees in finance with access to company employee W-2s to send them. They use those forms to file fraudulent tax returns in the employees’ names. Conversely, scammers approached this person to convince her they found her through Google to transition their independent contract workers (probably fake) to W-2 employees.

Professionals need to control their careers from both the front and back end.

It underscores how every professional must be vigilant and proactive in managing their career by vetting all inquiries into potential employment opportunities, ruling out scammers, and avoiding recruiting imposters. Successful job seekers strategically add skills and apply to jobs where their skills fit across several industries. They research, target, and apply to companies where their skills are in demand. While this doesn’t exclude them from being approached by imposters claiming to recruit for fake positions, the more they vet, the more they learn to rule out scammers. 

Job scammers can negatively impact background checks when they steal employment data from job portals. Applicants can have their job search derailed without understanding why. Scammers could create a fake profile using the employment history of unsuspecting victims to apply to thousands of jobs and likely be blacklisted by companies without the victim knowing why they don’t get calls from employers. Job seekers must ensure their references are as relevant as their skills. Assuming your background check will be untouched by scammers is a risk. 

The problem doesn’t stop at the victims getting blacklisted:

• While a job portal may report a breach, the applicants may face a long period of not hearing from employers or needing to verify their employment history, possibly dealing with questions about potential fraud.
• Companies will spend extra hours vetting thousands of applicants, many false, and lose tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. This process could ruin a company’s reputation and cause it to lose credibility with qualified candidates and industry competitors. The company may hire someone (possibly a scammer) who falsified their employment history. 

Job seekers and companies have money and time at stake in stopping job scams globally. Each has their reputation to uphold and present to each other as they look to help each other and build a sound economy. Reporting and blocking scammers are onerous, but protecting employment data is critical. Job seekers must be proactive and reactive today because unknown factors can impede their future.

Employers must respond to the possibility of scammers affecting their brand, if not directly, then indirectly.

If you want to learn what you can about job scams, what to do when you’re confronted with one, and what to do next when you’re a victim, I got you! Join my Substack newsletter and community, “The Job Scam Report!” The cost of a cup of coffee per month provides complete access to all job scam resources, articles, and the Substack ONLY podcast.