Beware Employment Scams

It happens every time there's a recession (depression). Scammers come out in force to rob you of your dignity and money. Not necessarily in that order.

This article will cover the latest scams and even some of the older ones that have been updated slightly. None of the scams will land you a job. All of them are designed to get enough personal information on you to empty your bank account and make life even tougher than it already is.

And if it's anything like I'm reading, it's already tough enough.

I've been getting this a lot. So much so, that I took the time to call the banks "represented" to get some idea of what they'd actually ask me for.

First, few banks are hiring right now. Apparently they don't need to. They've gotten more than enough applicants through normal channels and they certainly don't need a third party to represent them.

That hasn't stopped certain scammers from pretending to represent these banks, wasting a substantial amount of your time sending resumes, responding to questions, and talking to people who do not speak English as a second or even third language.

Here's the way it works. You get an official looking email from a recruiting company. The name sounds like it could be a viable company because it resembles a name that you've heard or know. The "represetative" claims to have a job that matches your skills on a resume. The job description does indeed sound like something you've done in the past.

You respond with your resume. If you are smart there's nothing on your resume, beside your phone number and email address, to give to anyone wanting to know more about you.

You get a call. The person on the other end is very hard to understand because English is not their primary language. They say they are hot to fill this position and ask you what you expect in the way of compensation. Two emails down and one to go before the bomb is dropped.

You respond with your salary or hourly rate requirements and you get a third email that magically has your rate in it. They are also asking for your full address, your bank account number, the bank manager name and your social security number.

Stop! Don't Respond!
Do not respond! I've called a number of national banks to check up on this and not one of them will ask for your account number or social security number as a pre-employment question. Not one!

Give thanks to whatever you hold dear that you only wasted a few hours of your time on this. It could have been much worse. You could be facing homelessness and a lack of good meals.

You see an ad on Monster.com or Careerbuilder or you get an email referring to one of these two sites. The position is for an account specialist. You respond with your resume. You get an email in response.

The job sounds rosy. All you have to do is process purchase orders from products sold overseas. The email claims you'll work about six hours a day and make up to $100,000 per year. This is your first red-flag. You aren't going to make that much money for so few hours work unless you own a business you've spent years building up.

Why do they need an account representative here you ask? Because they tell you, they are overseas and they can't afford to "set up shop" here. Bull!

Oh, and they need your bank account number too.

Stop! Don't Do It!
It's another scam designed to get you to give whoever it is your sensitive financial information. Once they have it they'll drain your bank account.

Disclaimer from Monster or Career Builder
Both these job sites and others sell your information to third parties. Those third-parties are not investigated or vetted. Anyone can buy your information and write to you with the Monster dot com or Career Builder logo attached to the email. You should always suspect at least foul play when this happens.

What you may notice, if you read carefully, is that both sites, and any others that sell this information, will tell you plainly in the message that the person or company sending you the message has not been checked out by the site itself. They'll go so far as to tell you that the site is not responsible for any outcome from responding to the message.

This should be a tip-off that almost anyone contacting you this way is not bona-fide.

I Don't Use Monster or Career Builder Any More
And this is why. The first time I got a job offer with the disclaimer attached I wasn't happy about it, but I kept my account active at one or the other site. The second time I got an email like this I pulled both my resume and closed the account.

Why? They are profiting on my data. It may not be illegal, but is most certainly unethical. There are other job sites out there and they don't sell your information.

I don't know about you, but I've been an eBay user for almost a decade, maybe longer.

This is a popular scam on Craigslist. An ad is placed in the "gigs" or other job sections. Someone needs to sell something on eBay and for some odd reason they don't want to open their own account. They promise is to remit to you twenty-five percent (or so) of the sale price, no mention of profit,  in return for them using your good name.

What they are looking for is an eBay member who has a good reputation as a buyer or seller. They'll use your account to "sell" products that are either not what is advertised or they will simply take the money and not ship anything. Guess who is responsible; the account holder, you.

Of course, they'll want access to your eBay account, your PayPal account and password and maybe even your bank account information.

With that information they'll run a scam on you and anyone attempting to buy the products for sale from you. In the end your eBay reputation will be ruined and likely you're bank account will be flattened.

Don't Give Anything that Important Away
Don't give anyone information to either your eBay or PayPal or Bank accounts for any reason. This is one of those things I don't even trust family members with. I'm certainly not going to do it for strangers.

There's another wrinkle to this. In the last year (2010) PayPal was hit with a number of scams where the "customer" claimed to have not gotten the product shipped or that you, the eBay seller, somehow scammed them. PayPal was routinely taking the money from the sellers account (even bank accounts if there was a link between accounts) and returning it to the "buyer." The end result was that the "buyer" had your product AND the money they were supposed to pay for the product with.

There's another popular scam on Craigslist. You respond to an ad for services that you know you can provide. You get an email in response with all the particulars about the job. What's needed, what they'll supply, when they need it back and so on. If you are conscientious you respond back with a proposal; a list of all the things you'll do to earn the money.

The scammer then asks for your address so they can UPS or FedEx the items for you to work on. This should be the first red-flag. If they aren't close enough for you to meet or for you to pick up the items, you should be very cautions. Scamming by "remote control" has become very popular.

They also tell you that they are going to send you a cashiers check for more than the agreed on amount. They want you to send them back the difference and you'll already be paid for the service you provide. You'll get the check, be told the item(s) won't ship until you mail back the difference and then five to ten days later you get slammed by the bank for a bad cashiers check. You'll pay dearly; not the scammer.

Don't Take a Cashier Check from Strangers
First, never take a cashiers check from someone you don't know. It takes a minimum of five business days for your bank to process one and in that time you can send back the difference and then get bill by the bank when the cashiers check turns out to be a forgery. Of course you'll have to make up that difference; not the thief that scammed you.

This could also get you listed on CheckSystems or one of the other fancial fraud prevention companies. This will make it that much harder for you to retain your current account or open a new account in the future.

Meanwhile the scammer has the difference in funds with only a minimal outlay of time.

In hate to say this in light of the current employment situation, but be very very careful. As I said in the first paragraph, the scammers are out in force. They don't care if they bankrupt you or destroy your credit. They are out to make a quick buck on your desire to get a job (or a better job).

The rule of thumb here is if the "employer" wants information that could expose you to risk it's probably a scam. No one offering a real job is going to want your social security number before you are employed or at least before the application process.

Your Social Security Number
The ONLY time your social security number will ever be asked for is on an employment application or I-9. And you should never ever supply that information unless you are face-to-face with the potential employer in their office where you can see that its a real business with real employment needs and not a scam.

Proposed Compensation
Unrealistic compensation or offers that are too good to be true are indeed too good to be true.

In fact I would go so far as saying that any offer that seems the least bit suspicious should be viewed with a jaundiced eye.

The Family Rule
Here's a simple rule. If you are asked for information you wouldn't even give your family members why would you give that information to a stranger?

It's Tough But it Could be Tougher
It's very tempting to respond to these offers. It is downright frightening how tough the job market is. One tends to reach out and grab any offer even offers that aren't reasonable. But be patient and exercise caution. It will always end up being worth the extra time to be cautious later on.

The author was not compensated in any way, monetarily, with discounts, or freebies by any of the companies mentioned.

Though the author does make a small profit for the word count of this article none of that comes directly from the manufacturers mentioned. The author also stands to make a small profit from advertising attached to this article.

The author has no control over either the advertising or the contents of those ads.