Scammers Are Posing as Recruiters on LinkedIn and Swindling Job-Seekers
In December, David, a Toronto-based regional supervisor for a device firm, needed to be the bearer of unhealthy news to a number of job-seekers who thought they’d landed employment along with his firm.
A number of months earlier, David and his staff seen a number of puzzling calls coming into the group’s normal contact line. All the callers requested to talk with the human sources division about roles they stated they’d been employed for. They all cited a recruiter by identify—one who actually did work with the corporate—however stated that they had been given no direct contact info for them throughout their recruitment. This was uncommon for the corporate’s hiring course of, and when the calls have been flagged by HR, the division confirmed the roles didn’t exist.
And then there have been the walk-ins.
“We had five or six people show up in our lobby on what was supposed to be their first day, saying, ‘I’m here for my job.’ It was right before Christmas and it was really crushing to talk to these people,” recollects David, who requested to make use of his first identify solely as he isn’t licensed to talk on behalf of his employer. “There were so many stories of, ‘I told my wife and my family and friends about this great new role, and now I’m going to have to go back and tell them I’ve made a fool of myself.’”
The job-seekers have been the victims of recruitment scams—one thing that fraud and employment consultants say has grow to be rather more prevalent for the reason that onset of the pandemic and the distant work growth. While the main points can differ, most job scams observe an analogous script: Scammers pose as hiring managers or recruiters, usually scraping the main points of actual recruiters for a given firm to create authentic-looking profiles on websites like LinkedIn. Then, they attain out to job-seekers about employment alternatives, or submit pretend job listings on-line. Jeff Horncastle, communications outreach officer with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), says scammers would possibly even create an alternate internet presence for a corporation by altering the area identify subtly, corresponding to changing the letter “I” with a lowercase “L.”
Lured right into a false sense of security, job-seekers undergo a digital interview course of and shortly obtain a job supply, usually on the higher limits of the market fee for that place, and are requested to supply private info corresponding to their social insurance coverage quantity and driver’s license—which might result in identification theft. The federal authorities says employment scams are additionally usually fronts for unlawful cash laundering or pyramid schemes. In some circumstances, candidates are supplied with a cheque and directions to deposit it of their account and e-transfer some or the entire cash to a third-party for companies, corresponding to on-the-job coaching. After the cash is distributed, the financial institution will reverse the deposit as a result of the cheque is fraudulent.
This ruse is what occurred at David’s firm. David says the victims he spoke with acquired a proposal letter within the mail and have been despatched a cheque with an quantity of round $4,000, which they have been requested to deposit after which pay to a job-training firm. While the quantity on the cheque would initially seem of their account, the cheque ultimately bounced—after victims had already e-transferred the funds.
The influence of job scams
Canadians misplaced $7 million to job scams in 2022, in accordance with the CAFC. While that was down barely from a excessive of $9.4 million in 2021, each years properly exceeded 2020’s losses of $4.4 million. Horncastle says that job scams are persistently among the many CAFC’s annual prime 10 rip-off sorts based mostly on variety of studies and {dollars} misplaced. But the centre believes that scams are dramatically underreported, and the official numbers symbolize simply 5 to 10 per cent of precise losses.
LinkedIn, the world’s largest skilled community, has seen scams get rising “clever,” Oscar Rodriguez, vice-president of product administration at LinkedIn, informed the Financial Times in February. “We see websites being set up, we see phone numbers with a seemingly professional operator picking up the phone and answering on the company’s behalf,” Rodriguez informed the outlet. “We see a move to more sophisticated deception.”
In its most up-to-date transparency report, LinkedIn stated between January and June 2022, it had blocked 16.4 million accounts suspected of being scammers, restricted 5.4 million “proactively” earlier than any members had reported them, and 190,000 after LinkedIn customers had flagged them.
While LinkedIn has been public about its crackdown on job scams, Mike Shekhtman, a Vancouver-based senior regional director at employment company Robert Half Canada, says they’re additionally occurring on different job boards and profession websites, like Indeed, in addition to social media websites like Facebook—and even on Craigslist.
Horncastle says job-seekers throughout the board, significantly ones which have posted their résumé and indicated they’re in search of work, are being focused by scammers. Shekhtman says that whereas “scammers don’t discriminate,” Robert Half has seen that they have a tendency to go after two susceptible teams: early-career professionals who don’t have sufficient work expertise to determine uncommon recruitment practices, and new Canadians. “Some scams we’ve seen have grammatical errors that might not raise a question early on for someone whose first language is not English,” he says.
Job rip-off pink flags: Things to look out for
Horncastle says frequent job rip-off pink flags embody being supplied a job instantly after the interview, or receiving an emailed job supply with out an interview, which the scammers will declare is because of the job-seeker’s abilities. No legit employer will request that an applicant settle for or deposit funds, he provides—even for coaching.
Shekhtman encourages job seekers to pump the brakes in the event that they’re to supply personally figuring out info to a recruiter earlier than they’ve formally accepted a task. “There’s no situation where you should be giving your SIN, your banking information or your driver’s license until you’ve been hired,” he says.
He says candidates ought to spend time doing their due diligence on an organization’s web site, guaranteeing they’re being contacted by somebody with an e-mail whose area identify matches the one listed on the positioning. It’s additionally smart to run the corporate’s identify and the phrase “scam” by way of a search engine to see if there are any warnings on-line.
On LinkedIn, customers can use a brand new “about this profile” characteristic, which reveals them when a profile was created and final up to date, and whether or not the member has a verified cellphone quantity or work e-mail. It additionally provides a warning message to some personal messages if the recruiter asks to take the dialog to a different platform.
David says that fortunately, his firm hasn’t heard from any extra rip-off victims since December. But after the alarming expertise, the business added a disclaimer on job postings that each one jobs require candidates to use instantly by way of the careers web page on its web site.
