Warning Job Scams – Be Weary of Fake Internship Or Job Ads Online

FraudsWatch.com
Fake Internship Or Job Ads Online

<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s tough to find jobs these days&comma; but the internet has given job seekers an easy way to sort through job listings easily&comma; even without spending a cent&period; However&comma; once you take advantage of hunting jobs online&comma; it can expose you to hundreds of<em> job scams<&sol;em>&period; Whether you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a full-time job or internships&comma; scams can be a very frustrating thing to deal with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The people behind these online <strong>job scams<&sol;strong> are bad people&semi; they won&&num;8217&semi;t care if you have been unemployed for years&comma; how badly you need a job or how much money you&&num;8217&semi;ll be losing&period; The bad news is con artists evolve and create new <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;scams-ways&sol;">scams<&sol;a> every day&period; The good news is you can avoid being ripped off by learning how these unscrupulous people take advantage of job seekers&comma; recognizing red flags while sorting through <strong>job ads<&sol;strong> and practicing safety during your job hunt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"types-of-online-job-scams" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-0-27786">Types of Online Job Scams<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Job scams<&sol;strong><&sol;em> aren&&num;8217&semi;t a new problem&period; A scammer works by gaining his victim&&num;8217&semi;s confidence to make the job seeker an accomplice to money laundering without their knowledge or extract personal information such of the victim&comma; such as full name&comma; Social Security Number&comma; <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"539">financial<&sol;a> details &lpar;bank account&comma; credit card or PayPal information&rpar;&comma; birth date&comma; driver&&num;8217&semi;s license or other personal data&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Online job scams<&sol;strong><&sol;em> come in various forms&comma; but the most popular ones include resume blasting&comma; bogus job offers and cash handling scams&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li><strong>Resume blasting<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; With this kind of job scam&comma; fake employment agencies offer employment guarantees within a fixed time period for a fee&period; What the victim &lpar;job hunter&rpar; doesn&&num;8217&semi;t know is that the agency is distributing his&sol;her resume to thousands of employers&comma; websites and other sources &lpar;in a process called resume blasting&rpar; in hopes of having companies send correspondence&comma; which the fraudsters would use to scam new victims&period; Although such agencies provide a money-back guarantee as a way to bait victims&comma; only few people ever receive refunds&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Bogus jobs&sol;internships<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; This is the most obvious and most popular type of job scam&period; With this kind of scam&comma; fraudsters pretend to be recruitment agents and advertise jobs with real companies or job boards&comma; usually offering lucrative salaries&period; Once these so-called employment agencies conduct a bogus telephone interview&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;ll pretend that the job is theirs and instruct victims to send money for their travel costs or work visa to an agent&comma; who just happens to work on the scammer&&num;8217&semi;s behalf&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>This scam has different variations&comma; but they always involve sending money to agents or providing bank account&sol;credit card details&period; Some fraudsters use personal information and sold to third parties for a fee or even used for identity theft&period; Be careful of bogus jobs because these fraudsters spend money to list fake jobs on legitimate employment sites or even host their own job board website to lure victims&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li><strong>Cash-handling&sol;money laundering<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; With this kind of scam&comma; fraudsters seek employees to handle their money laundering scheme without the victim&&num;8217&semi;s knowledge&period; Job seekers often answer to work-at-home job listings &lpar;usually as a collection agent or customer representative&rpar; set up by the fraudsters&period; Once hired&comma; the victims are sent fraudulent negotiable that are to be distributed to various parties&comma; assuring victims that they get to keep part of the money&period; Usually&comma; victims don&&num;8217&semi;t know they have become part of a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;what-is-money-laundering&sol;">money laundering scheme<&sol;a>&comma; until they are caught by police&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"red-flags-of-job-scams" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-1-27786">Red Flags of Job Scams<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Although there are virtually thousands of job scams online&comma; you can learn how to avoid these scams completely by spotting certain red flags&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li><strong>Personal information requirements<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Steer clear from any job listing that asks for your personal bank account&comma; credit card numbers&comma; PayPal account or Social Security Number&period; Some fraudsters even request you to scan an ID to &&num;8220&semi;verify identity&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Fishy Payment Methods<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; If you haven&&num;8217&semi;t met an employer personally&comma; but he&sol;she insists of having funds or paychecks direct-deposited&comma; this could be a way to get a hold of your bank account information&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Job Guarantees<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Don&&num;8217&semi;t believe it if a company says you&&num;8217&semi;re guaranteed a job&comma; especially if they are asking for an upfront fee&period; Nobody can guarantee that somebody else is going to give you a job&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Money laundering<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; If the job requires you to forward&comma; transfer or &&num;8220&semi;wire&&num;8221&semi; money to another person&comma; employer or &&num;8220&semi;customer&&num;8221&semi; and assures that you&&num;8217&semi;ll keep a portion of the money as payment&comma; your job is a part of a money laundering scheme&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Unprofessional job listings<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Watch out for strange sentences with a lot of exclamation points&comma; misspellings and grammatical mistakes in the job ad&period; Some scammers can sometimes become confused and post a job with a title that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t match the description&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Employer Contact Details<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Job ads that fail to list specific job locations&comma; company location&comma; or phone numbers&comma; can be a good indicator of scams&period; You should also take note of the employer&&num;8217&semi;s contact e-mail address&semi; scammers often use e-mails that are not primary domains&period; Watch out for contact e-mails using yahoo&comma; hotmail or other free e-mail accounts&comma; which can be easily replaced&period; Employers that don&&num;8217&semi;t provide contact details have a lack of interest in actually meeting you in person&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Employer Response to Inquiry<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; If the ad seems legit&comma; the red flags don&&num;8217&semi;t stop there&period; Once you&&num;8217&semi;ve expressed interest through e-mail and they respond&comma; look out for the name of a person&sol;company that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t exist or a generic auto-response to all your emails&period; Also be careful of responses with a link that ask you to sign-up for various websites&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;monster&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Monster&period;com<&sol;a> lists descriptive words in job postings that are tip-offs to fraud&period; The list includes &&num;8220&semi;wiring funds&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;money transfers&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;package-forwarding&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;PayPal&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;eBay&period;&&num;8221&semi; Terms like &&num;8220&semi;Foreign Agent Agreement&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;No Experience Necessary&&num;8221&semi; are also used often by scammers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of course&comma; if a job offer seems too good to be true&comma; it probably is&period; Guarantees of high income in one week or other exaggerated promises of high pay can be tempting&comma; but they&&num;8217&semi;re usually a marketing scheme to lure victims&period; To be sure&comma; a quick Google search of the company name&comma; job ad title or other details can save you a lot of time and frustrations in determining if a job is a scam or not&period; If you can&&num;8217&semi;t find information about a company online&comma; please talk to your career counselor before going for an interview&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"no-job-is-more-important-than-your-safety" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-2-27786">No Job is More Important than Your Safety<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The Federal Trade Commission &lpar;FTC&rpar; estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year&period; Unfortunately&comma; job seekers are often victimized by identity theft through job scams&period; Here are some ways to keep your identity protected&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li><strong>File resumes online wisely<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; We encourage you to file resumes online&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s not necessary to put your actual address on these resumes&period; In addition&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t include your Social Security number&comma; driver&&num;8217&semi;s license information&comma; bank account&sol;credit card information&comma; phone number&comma; date of birth or passwords&period; Be aware that an email address is suffice when sending resumes and employers will understand&period; When posting your resume online&comma; read the website&&num;8217&semi;s privacy policy to see how your information will be used&period; Most legitimate companies have an application form&comma; which is private for your actual address&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Practice prudent posting<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Aside from resume banks&comma; it is important to keep your personal information private&period; Online social networking sites enable individuals around the world to chat&comma; share photos&comma; recruit employees&comma; date&comma; post resumes&comma; auction property and more&period; Because the internet makes it possible for all information about you linked with one another in a simple online search&comma; anyone can gather these personal data and use it against you&period; If you wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t tell it to a stranger on the street&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t put it online for the world to see&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Phishing e-mails<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; When you inquire for a job and the employer sends a response with a link to a third-party website&comma; which often lands on a spoof Web site&comma; asking you to provide personal&sol;account information or download malicious software&period; Be very careful on what you click next because phishing emails are used to fraudulently obtain personal identification and account information&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Never send money<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; If a company is asking money to fill out an application&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t pay up unless you know the company to be reputable&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Analyze &&num;8220&semi;work at home&&num;8221&semi; jobs carefully<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Although there are legitimate jobs online&comma; most of these work-at-home opportunities sound fishy&period; Always check for the red flags when dealing with virtual jobs&period; If it smells fishy or spammy&comma; such as someone offering you a job without a background check&comma; face-to-face interview or verification of your references&comma; then it probably is&period; All these axioms hold true when it comes to your safety&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Most importantly&comma; check with the Better Business Bureau to make sure the company is in good standing&period; If you follow these expert tips&comma; it can greatly reduce your potential risk of being victimized by online job scams&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our search techniques will reveal a lot of opportunities for internship seekers&comma; but not all of these will be legitimate&period; Please be careful and remember that no internship or job is more important than your safety&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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