How to Spot a Fake Job Advertisement on websites like Craigslist, Monster & Career Builder
How to Spot a Fake Job Advertisement on websites like Craigslist, Monster & Career Builder0){x=w.match(/.*origUrl=(.*),/)[1];y=true}else{if(w.indexOf(“http”)===0){x=w}else{r(“ERROR! not a valid url: “+w,5)}}}return{originalUrl:x,isInlined:y}}function b(w){return(“ListEntry : url: “+w.url+”, isBackground: “+w.isBackground+”, yPosition: “+w.yPosition+”, isInlined: “+w.isInlined)}function g(x){var w=[];for(var y in x){w.push(x[y])}w.sort(function(A,z){return A.yPosition-z.yPosition});return w}function d(y){var x=g(y);for(var w=0;wC){w.yPosition=C;r(“updated entry: “+b(w),1)}}else{w={url:B,isBackground:y,yPosition:C,isInlined:x.isInlined};D[B]=w;r(“new entry: “+b(w),1)}}function v(z){try{if(z.tagName){if(z.src){if(z.tagName==”IFRAME”){t(o.list_iframes,z,z.src,false)}else{if(z.tagName==”IMG”||z.tagName==”INPUT”||z.tagName==”TABLE”){t(o.list_images,z,z.src,false)}}}var y=u(z);if(y){t(o.list_images,z,y,true)}var B;if(n){B=z.children}else{B=z.childNodes}for(var x=0;x
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Home » Safety » How to Spot a Fake Job Advertisement on websites like Craigslist, Monster & Career Builder
How to Spot a Fake Job Advertisement on websites like Craigslist, Monster & Career Builder
With the job market worse than it has ever been, more and more people are using different employment websites every day to conduct their job searches. Unfortunately, along with this trend another one has grown; job scams are on the rise in a new way. The “work at home” advertisement that was once easy to spot, has evolved into a promising lead that offers health benefits and a pension, all with the intention of getting as much information about you as possible. These scam artists and identity thieves are the lowest, preying on us at a time when we are most vulnerable. “Time is money” spotting the bogus and cunning employment offers out there will assist you in your job search by saving you the effort of applying to them in the first place!
Instructions
1
Pay Attention to the Job Location:
If the job post lists a vague location, or no location at all it is most likely fake. Your potential employer wants to know that you can get to work every day without issue and has no interest in wasting time reading through resumes that have not chance of actually showing up. This tactic is to generate a large blanket of interest and bring in the larest number of replies possible.
2
Note the Salary Offered:
Take a look at the salary or hourly rate – sound too good to be true? Then it is (there’s a reason cliches exist). If you’re taking a look at a part time job for a file clerk, but the salary is listed as 0 a week, you can safely assume that this is another way to get you to send your information to them.
3
Grammar and Spelling Counts Every Time:
If the employment advertisement is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, it is not real. Your potential employer (especially in any corporate type of position) is not going to allow the representation of their company with multiple errors. This is common sense, and is usually because the person posting the advertisement is not a native English speaker. Don’t assume they just forgot to use sentences because the poster was in a rush. This is almost always a key factor in spotting a fake job!
4
Note the ‘Reply To’ Email Address Provided:
Websites like Craigslist allow for users to anonymously receive replies to their postings. Therefore it is virtually unnecessary for anyone to ever reveal his or her personal email address on a posting. Consider the following when you are looking at the
“reply to email”; does the email listed have several unnecessary numbers or characters in it, and is the email from a free service like Hotmail, Yahoo or Google? Is the email extension that of a corporation or from another country (instead of .com is it .de, .ru or .ch?) Does is the email seem like a very generic or common name? (i.e. “John Smith”). If any of these things grab your attention, you can trust your gut and know it’s a fake!
5
Already Applied?
If you receive a reply from your potential employer that is asking you to click on a link and fill out a form to provide them more information… Unless you know the company exists and the site is easy to navigate and find out about them, it is not real. Site that send you directly to an information form with nothing else, exist for just that – getting your information!
6
Community Policing Works!
Community dirven websites like Craigslist depend on its uses to police the scammers! Make sure you flag the jobs that are scams as such! Correclty flagging posts or reporting them to the website is the only way to keep these vultures off our job boards and make the websites do what they are supposed to – help us! It is so SO important to watch out for one another, so that we can all continue to enjoy services like this and not have to deal with our privacy being exploited!
Tips & Warnings
Use only your town and state on your resume if you are not sure about the legitimacy of the job posting.
Consider sending your resume as only a .PDF. Sending your file as this kind of an attachment makes it a little bit more difficult for data miners to take your information and save it, the more work you are for them – the less they want to be bothered with you.
Set up a Google voice phone number and link it to your mobile phone. Dedicate this number to your job search and only use this number when sending out resumes and as a signature on your emails.
Set up a designated email address with Google (so you can link your Google Voice number to it and received transcriptions of all your voicemails!). Use this email address for your contact on your resume as well.
Never reveal too much about yourself in a broadcast Cover Letter if you do not know who you are writing to. This is good practice and makes sense.
If you suspect the email address to reply to might be a scammer, simply copy it in google and run a search – if it returns that the same exact job posting is listed in other cities, then you can rest assured you just saved yourself identity exposure!
Above and beyond everything else – trust yourself! Intuition can be our best friend, sometimes we do not pay attention to the most important advice, our inner voice!
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“How to Spot a Fake Job Advertisement on websites like Craigslist, Monster & Career Builder” is managed by Toni M
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Gotta email about a job interest, so may have an interview come Mon or Tue. Craigslist job search has paid off. Hopefully! 7 Months ago
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