The internet gave job seekers the liberty to scan hundreds to thousands of job ads. Employers have the liberty to select the best candidates. However, that freedom of easy access also opens the door for those with nefarious intent. Here are the red flags to watch out if the job ads you found in newspaper classifieds and job board, are genuine or just looking for their next victim. Beware that con men are getting more sophisticated.
 

• Inflated number of recruits

Job scams tend to exaggerate the number of recruits to attract more applicants. The real number of required personnel is different from a genuine advertisement. You can find such bogus job ads on Facebook and even in some job boards. One of the examples is the Mushroom-picker in Canada vacancies for Filipinos that was posted on Facebook pages. The job ad turned the legit number (about 14) into hundreds of vacancies. 
 

• Too good to be true

Too good to be true job offers refers to the inflated salaries of a certain job that turned out to be bogus upon thorough research. Such jobs pay well and at the same time, no experience required and very flexible. While the pay scale differs among companies and cities, there’s an industry standard for the said position.

One example, a Filipino guy (Mr.A) who was nearly scammed when he was offered via email of a high paying job in the United Kingdom. 

It started this way. The job was an airport ground CSR. It pays well - around £ 5,000 per month. MR.A received instructions telling him to answer the online questionnaire. He complied by sending back the answered questionnaire. After two days, the advertiser told Mr. A passed the test and now he will be offered a job. The advertiser also sent letters with a UK government sea. Later, Mr A asked for advice from his best friend who told him that the job ad (offer) was a bogus one. His best friend discovered glaring grammatical, typo errors and similar modus from previously identified scam jobs. 
 

• Fees for processing, registrations, tests and software for freelance

Bogus jobs will immediately ask for fees so that you can secure the positions or else - you lose the opportunity. They use a psychological trick of scarcity and immediacy by imposing time/vacancy limits so that you can quickly consider their offer or reduce your time to rethink or doubt. It’s like picking a rare product that everyone wants and that you must act buy ASAP or else you lose it. The scam artists may tell you to do their bidding by asking you to send credit/debit card details and send money through PayPal. 

A fake job ad will require you to pay some kind of license to start working. Another example of a bogus employer is enticing a freelance applicant to pay for software. They would tell the job seeker to buy the work at home program and such fees will be reimbursed after the first paycheck. After paying, the said job and software never materialized. Scammers often make impostor Facebook pages akin to the real or official FB pages. There, the con men can use their new platform to harvest personal info and post ads asking for a registration fee.

The short reminder about jobs that require you to pay - You don’t pay the employers, real jobs pay you. 
 

• Unsolicited job hunt: You didn’t contact them; they contacted you

You may receive a job offer or an interview out of the blue even if you can’t recall when or where you applied. You can’t recall what kind of job board you signed up, or you received such popping job ad from a job site that you haven’t used for more than 3 years. 
 

• Interviews are online or there's no interview needed

Unless you’re applying for a remote or freelance job, fake employers will just stick to online interviews. Con men could either use online interviews via messaging services or say - there’s no interview needed, you passed already.
 

• Vague employer details

Beware of job ads that don’t mention the job descriptions, experiences and place of work. Likewise, employer details are sketchy - no official website, office address or plainly with a hidden business name. On the other hand, con men can imitate the real company’s website and use such duplicate to trick applicants.

Q & As 

• Unprofessional correspondence

Whether it’s email or a letter, anything a written communication with glaring typos on job descriptions could be made by a software translator or someone who doesn’t care about the writing standards. Grammatical mistakes may not be the perfect signs of identifying scam artists but they are commonly found in the identified scam letters.

• Exists in various type

○   Data entry scams - This one promises big bucks and a job that doesn’t need skills or some sort of skills set. Then it asks for an upfront fee for the program and training. If you fall for this one, you’ll soon realize that the promised program and training didn’t materialize.

○   Pyramid marketing - Pyramid marketing or scheme is an unsustainable or shaky business model that involves upline or top-level members who pay an upfront fee and in turn have their new underlings to recruit newbies. Pyramid marketing relies on recruitment fees and not from the sale of services or goods. 

○   Pyramid marketing with bogus business - They have a similar scheme to pyramid marketing in terms of recruitment. Their business model uses non-existing services. One example is an unlicensed and non-accredited multi-booking service.

○   Fake job offers and ads in social media - Fraudsters imitate official pages of DOLE, POEA, other government agencies and companies. The Philippine daily inquirer reported one incident when a bogus FB page posting as the DOLE central office used a false name to scam a job seeker. The scammer asked for a reservation fee (1,000 Php) from the victim who then later discovered that the said name of the government employee wasn’t among the roster of DOLE employees and sadly the job advertised. 

○   Jobs that charge for testing fees - Test fees for applicants before or after the interview. 

○   Shady jobs - These jobs could offer a job but hides their illicit method of qualifying applicants such as paying for IDs and registration. In the end, after you become an employee, you’ll be surprised that your salary is below than what you expected.

How to outwit scammers

• Remember the rule 

Remember, as a job seeker, you are looking for a job so that you can earn your money or living and not the other way around. You're not the one who is going to pay money. It’s the employer’s business to pay you money in exchange for your time and services.
 

• Do not give in to the sense of urgency

Here’s a psychological one. Con artists make a sense of urgency by sending job ads that demand immediate need or deployment. They will tell you that what they offer are only limited and if you don’t act today, you’ll risk losing an opportunity. Others will come out of the blue and convince you to work for them and that if you act today you’ll get a paycheck after 2 or more weeks of working. Then, after you contact these scam artists to asks for your pay, they’ll no longer respond to your calls or emails. If you face such possible scam with a sense of urgency, think twice before you sign up or typing your bank card details. We often make wrong moves after we make hasty decisions.
 

• Research the company

Does the company have a professional website? Are there any grammatical mistakes or typos? You can use the search engine (Google, Yandex, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo) to look for mixed or different results. Use social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte) forums and blogs to uncover more details about the company. 

○ Look in the left of the URL. A website with https tag is more secure and trustworthy. It’s also called Secure Socket Layer or SSL. A padlock icon represents this security sign although more sophisticated forge padlock sign . So use a combo of research and verification methods.

○ Find the company’s postal address - Suspicious companies and fake ads have mismatched postal address or don’t have physical contact address at all. 

○ Read reviews - You could run into reviews of complaints unless you’re reading fake reviews.

○ Check the website through Who.Is - Here you can verify the websites registration info (date of website or domain registration)..

○ Use domain white pages - Job con-artists are getting more sophisticated so they set up phishing website or websites that look identical to the real ones. Use it to see all the domain info of that website. Suspicious looking websites could be a year or less than a year old.

• Verify the company’s social media site

The easy and fast sign ups lead to some social media accounts masquerading as DOLE, POEA and other official company’s accounts. Use the word “official” along with the “Facebook page name of a government agency or company when searching through search engines (Google, Yandex, Yahoo).

Examples of Genuine/official social media pages versus impostors

Spotting a bogus social media accounts versus genuine social media accounts

• Never give your personal info

Scam job pages and posts on Facebook pages may run surveys and contests that ask for photos, numbers, emails and other personal info.

Personal info includes the following:

• Home address
• Bank account number 
• SSS number
• TIN number
• Passport number
• Credit card number
• Ask for a contract

A legal and signed contract details all the tasks, terms and conditions, and the rights of both parties (you and the employer). If they can’t give a contract or gives a contract with so many discrepancies and suspicious details, then be on guard. Be wary that even some legit employers do not disclose the exact working hours other than those stated in the contract. For instance, there are employers and recruiters (some jobs in the Middle Eastern countries) to state 8 hours working time in the contract while in fact, it’s topped with 4 hours overtime resulting in a 12 hours work.

Reference: 

1 - https://globalnation.inquirer.net/181944/fake-poea-social-media-pages-listed