Crooks and organized crime groups normally focus on
particular target victims for their online scams. This allows them to mold
their tactics and schemes to the relevant habits and interests of their
intended victims. For example, unsuspecting users who go to the Internet and
actively look for ways to invest their money and gain significant returns are
targeted by thieves with their fake
investment offers.
On the other hand, users who want to look for available
employment opportunities normally go to the Internet and search for jobs. They
hang out in professional social networks like LinkedIn, and browse through the
newest listings at classified job sites and micro sourcing platforms. Their
urgent need for jobs is exploited by a certain group of criminals that design
online scams for carrying out identity theft, while there are other crooks who
intend to directly steal money from their intended victims.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and ActionFraud
(UK's national online crime reporting center) recently reported a continuing rise in online scams that are targeted at job seekers in the USA and the UK
this year. If you spend time in LinkedIn and classified job sites to look for
employment opportunities, then you should keep these things in mind:
How Do Recent Online Scams Victimize Job Seekers?
1. These online scams make use of compelling job ads.
These are posted all around the Internet, specifically in online places where
job seekers go to look for possible employment opportunities. Normally, popular
household brand names like Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook are mentioned
in these fake job offers, in order to entice more job seekers to respond to
these job ads.
2. Links in these job ads point to professional looking
websites, which are usually clones of the online platforms that are owned and
operated by reputable companies. Many of these online scams require job seekers
to fill out an online form with their personal details and private information,
and to also upload their scanned identity documents. Other versions of this
scam try to convince job seekers to pay a certain fee for priority processing
and job placement.
3. As soon as you fill out these Web forms and upload
your scanned identity documents, your personal details and confidential
documents are logged and transmitted to the authors of these online scams. They
use it for their other illegal activities online and offline. Some sell your
stolen information as fake identity packages to other criminals in the Dark
Web.
4. As soon as you enter your financial information to
pay for the fake priority processing and employment placement fee, your details
are also logged and transmitted to the authors of these online scams. This
means you won't only lose the money that you paid for the fake service since
your financial account has already been compromised and could most likely be
used elsewhere or sold to the highest bidder in the Dark Web.
So, how exactly can you tell if a job offer that you see on
the Web is just one of these online scams? Well, the simplest and easiest way
is to check the reputation and verify the authenticity of the person or group
that posted the job ad in LinkedIn or in your preferred classified job sites
and micro job sourcing platforms. You can also sign up at BigScammers.Com to
receive instant alerts and notices about specific online job scams at the
moment. This can help you quickly recognize potential fraudulent job offers on
the Internet.
