As I’m sure most people are aware, the current job market is a strange and difficult field to navigate. When I graduated in May of this year, I knew it was going to be a lengthy and difficult process to find employment in what I had majored in — Communications. This, coupled with the fact that I graduated abroad and would be moving back to the States (in the middle of a pandemic), left me with a mixture of pessimism and imposter syndrome when entering the U.S. job market. These concerns prepared me for the inevitable let-downs of being a recent grad trying to break into my field of study. However, what I was naively unaware of was the amount of scamming and unethical hiring practices that occur in the online job-hunting space.
The Financial Information Phishers
Leading up to graduating and the inevitable job search, I was diligent in listing my resume on all possible job websites. This is a basic and important thing to do, but it doesn’t come without all the negative side effects of the internet. In publicly listing your resume and contact information, it opens the door to be contacted by anyone – legitimate or otherwise. Initially, I was optimistic about having my skills publicly searchable online, and I even received some genuine inquiries. However, it didn’t take long before the less reputable sides of the web crept into my inbox.
The first example of a “scam job” I encountered was blatantly dubious from the get-go. I received a text message from a number I didn’t recognize, claiming to be the “Administrator Recruitment Secretary” of a well-known brokerage firm in New York City. This message claimed that their human resources team had reviewed my resume, and would like to schedule an interview in regards to a translation position in their accounting department. A cold contact like this via text would set off alarm bells in anyone’s mind, but given my lack of optimism on job prospects, I decided to play along and see what the deal was. I agreed to the interview and was told I’d be contacted by an HR Coordinator via Skype. This “HR Coordinator” did reach out to me via Skype, using the name of one of the executives of this firm. I nearly laughed my laptop off my lap when I realized this. I may be just entering into the corporate world, but what brokerage firm executive would be handling HR recruiting? At this point, I knew I was in for a real comedic chat. This person then proceeded to give a vague job description, and sent me an email with a “contract of employment” attached. This email sought information such as previous employers, a copy of a driver’s license or ID, and social security number. This obviously cemented the fact that this is just a phishing scam, and I quickly reported them to the job listing site and the firm they were impersonating.
Read the full article at: thefinancialdiet.com
