Job Posting Verification Process

Last week, I got two different emails about the exact same "job" from two completely different recruiters at the same “company”—both claiming there’s a role that urgently needs my talents in recruiting automotive manufacturing talent. Same job. Same wording. Two different recruiters. Either I’m in high demand (flattered!), or it's fake job spam. Here’s the thing: not all recruiter outreach is legit. And while this might be a real job, this kind of scattershot approach is not a good look for any company trusting an agency to represent their employer brand. It screams “we’re not aligned” and makes job seekers question what’s real and what’s a phishing expedition. Red flags to look out for: 🚩Multiple outreach messages from different people about the exact same role from an agency you've never heard of or looks sketch. 🚩Broken formatting, typos, or vague contact details? 🚩Unrealistic or misaligned requirements, salary or hiring process. See 2+ years experience and then later in the post 0-20 years experience. 🤣 Always vet the recruiter. Look them up on LinkedIn. Check the company website to see if they are in deed hiring and/or review the recruiters website. It's better to be safe than sorry. #recruiting #jobsearch #talentacquisition

Today, we received another email from a jobseeker who thought they'd been offered a job at Zapier in what turned out to be a scam: 🚩 🚩 🚩 Here's a list of things that COULD be red flags 🚩 🚩 🚩 1. Domain mismatch ("zapierinc" or "zapier. biz") 2. You're contacted about a job you don't have any record of applying for. 3. The person contacting you has a new LinkedIn account with very few connections, has an unverified email, no profile picture, not connected to employees of the company they claim to work at, etc. 4. The job you're contacted about isn't posted on the company's website. 5. The interview takes place via text on an app like Teams or Skype. 6. You receive an offer for a non-entry level role after a single interview or after never meeting a real employee. 7. You're asked for private information like your social security number, bank account information, etc. 8. You're asked to pay anything up front, or told you'll be given a check and then should pay the company. 9. The communication is poorly written or creates an unnecessary level of urgency (for example, threatening to pull an offer if you don't submit the paperwork that say). 10. You receive a text or a comment on LinkedIn from a big name company sourcing you for a "too good to be true" type opportunity. Please note that I say "could" because you may experience 1-2 of these in a legitimate process (for example, you're being proactively sourced for a role that's not yet posted, or a company is leveraging recruiters abroad who are communicating in their second language resulting in weak communication). But you won't see multiple items from this list in a legitimate process. If you realize you've been the victim of a scam, steps you can take: 1. Report the account details to the FTC. 2. Report the profile to LinkedIn. 3. If you're shared your bank info, contact your bank to get support with ensuring no payments are taken from your account. 4. If you shared your social security, contact the credit bureaus as it may make sense to freeze your credit. 5. You can inform the company that someone is impersonating their employees; they may be able to help with getting domains or accounts closed. Jobseekers are vulnerable and that makes them easy targets. And in a tough market, unfortunately many want so badly to land a great opportunity that they may miss the red flags. Please try to internalize these, and share them with others in your network. If you see someone falling for one of these scams, warn them of the signs.

🚨 Alert: Rising Job Scams Targeting Students 🚨 Hey LinkedIn community, Today, I want to raise awareness about an alarming trend I've noticed recently—job scams targeting students and recent graduates. As we navigate the job market, it's crucial to stay vigilant and protect ourselves from these deceitful practices. 👺 Key Red Flags to Watch Out For: Too Good to Be True: If a job offer seems exceptionally lucrative without much effort or qualifications, it might be a scam. Unsolicited Offers: Be cautious of unsolicited job offers, especially those received via non-professional channels like social media DMs or personal emails. Immediate Job Offers: Legitimate employers typically conduct thorough interviews. Be wary of offers made without a formal interview process. Upfront Payments: No legitimate job will ask you to pay for training, equipment, or any other expenses upfront. Vague Job Descriptions: Scammers often use generic job titles and descriptions to lure unsuspecting candidates. Ensure the job details are specific and align with your expertise. ✌ Protect Yourself: Research the Company: Verify the company's legitimacy by checking their official website, LinkedIn page, and reviews on platforms like Glassdoor. Verify Contacts: Use official company channels to verify the identity of the person contacting you. Trust Your Instincts: If something feels off, it's better to walk away and double-check than to fall victim to a scam. Remember: 📢 Do not share your SSN or IDs. Always take the time to thoroughly vet job opportunities and don't hesitate to seek advice from mentors, career advisors, or peers. Let's stay informed and protect each other by sharing this message with our networks. Together, we can help create a safer job market for everyone, especially for our emerging professionals. Stay safe and vigilant, everyone! #ScamAlert #Jobs #Jobscams #JobSearch #Graduates #Students

❌ Beware of job scams on LinkedIn. Scammers are getting craftier. They're reaching out with enticing job offers that, unfortunately, are designed to steal personal information or even money. Here are some tips to help you navigate safely: 🔍 Verify the Contact: -Always ensure the person contacting you has a comprehensive LinkedIn profile. -Look for a detailed work history, connections in common, and professional endorsements. -If something feels off, it probably is. 🏢 Investigate the Company: -If you're approached by an unfamiliar company, research them. -Look them up on LinkedIn, Google, and Glassdoor. -Real companies have an online presence, including websites and social media accounts. 🔒 Secure Communication: -Legitimate recruiters and hiring managers will typically use their corporate email, not personal ones. -Be wary of any communications asking for personal information via email, especially if they don't come from a corporate domain. 💰 Too Good to Be True: -High-paying jobs for minimal experience, roles that don't require an interview, or companies offering to send checks before you start working are often scams. -Be cautious and remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. 💭 Trust Your Instincts: -If something feels wrong, don't ignore your gut feeling. -Take your time to research and never feel pressured to provide information quickly. Remember, the goal of your job search is to advance your career, not to become a victim. Stay alert and safe!

Over the past few months, my LinkedIn feed has been full of people open for work; I know how challenging the job market is. At the same time, my TikTok feed has been full of victims who have received job offers, only to find it was a scam after either giving them personal data or worse, having money stolen from them. For those of you in the job market, I want to offer a few tips: -- If someone reaches out to you directly about a job, do everything you can to verify that they are employed by the company or search firm they claim to be. Check their LinkedIn profile to make sure they have verified their workplace (Verifications are located directly under the summary section). Make sure the email address they provided has the correct company domain; check the domain spelling carefully. --If someone reaches out to you about an entry/mid-level role that typically has many qualified applicants, be suspicious. In this job market, those are not roles where recruiters need to actively recruit; they can find great candidates simply by posting the role. -- When applying for jobs directly, try to do so from a trusted source (e.g., the company's career site, LinkedIn.) Be wary of small career sites. If you find a job posted that looks interesting, check on the company's career site to see if the role is posted there. If it's not, walk away. -- NEVER give personal data (e.g., date of birth, driver's license/passport/social security number, etc.) over the phone or through a non-secured email exchange. --NEVER EVER transfer money or use your own funds to purchase anything needed for the role. They often "wire money" or send you a check to deposit in your Zelle account that ultimately bounces after you have transferred funds back to them. A legitimate company will ship required equipment to you directly. If you are asked to go buy it, walk away. -- If the job sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you get the sense that something is off, don't be afraid to visit the company website, find a email address for general inquiries & ask them to verify that the role is legitimate and that XX recruiter is working on it. Job scams enrage me because criminals are preying on incredibly vulnerable people who can't afford to lose money. I know the emotional toll job hunting can take on a person. To think you have finally made it to the other side only to realize it was all a con is gut wrenching. I don't usually ask this, but please share this on your feed and add additional tips that I haven't mentioned. Recruiters are a community; we have to look out for job seekers, treat them with respect, and help them find real work.

🚨 PSA to those currently seeking new employment🚨 PLEASE do your due diligence on the jobs you are applying to. It's come to my attention more and more that there are fraudulent jobs being posted on job search sites like Indeed, among others. Jobs that don't really exist, being run by individuals that don't work for the companies they are posting the jobs for. Often times these are jobs that are likely to generate a large number of applications. Remote capable, entry or junior level, etc. Those individuals are then reaching out to applicants with fake interview requests that include direct deposit forms... 😡 As if it wasn't stressful enough already to be hunting for a new job... Here are some things to keep in mind to avoid getting scammed by a fake job. 1. ALWAYS cross check the job posting with the company's careers page. If the role isn't posted on the company's careers page, trust me, it won't be posted on a external job board. 2. It's not enough just to cross-check titles. You should also cross-check the job descriptions to ensure they are the same. 3. I've NEVER heard of a company sending a direct deposit form to a candidate who is interviewing for a role. If this happens, it is a scam. 4. Companies will NEVER ask you to sign up for the signal app in order to communicate during the interview process (yes this is another example I have heard recently). 5. If you receive an outreach message, it's always a good practice to check here on LinkedIn if that person actually works for the company. Recruiters, in particular, typically have well built out LinkedIn profiles. If you receive outreach from someone with a sketchy profile, I would exercise caution. #Hiring #Talent #JobSeekers

As we step into the New Year, I wanted to share a concerning discovery that could impact many of us in the professional world. Recently, I've uncovered a scam involving fake profiles on popular job boards like Indeed and ZipRecruiter. The Scam Explained: These fraudulent profiles are not created with the intent to engage in genuine recruitment. Instead, their purpose is to harvest personal and contact information. I conducted an experiment where I used a new email and phone number exclusively for these job boards. Shortly after, I began receiving unsolicited emails and calls from third-party service companies, indicating a clear misuse of my information. Additionally, I noticed a pattern in the candidate profiles that responded to job postings or were just listed in their searchable databases. Many of these profiles had peculiarities, such as uncapitalized last names and a first name used as a last name (e.g., John christopher, Kevin andrew). These candidates never responded to outreach, or when I would leave a message there was never a personalized voicemail or anyone who answered, suggesting they were fake. My Advice: Given the poor customer service and lack of response from these job boards, I recommend moving forward with using a separate set of contact information when engaging on these platforms. This approach helps avoid spam on your primary contacts such as cell phone, office line, or primary email. I wanted to share this experience to raise awareness and encourage caution among my fellow honest and ethical professionals. Let's stay vigilant as we navigate the online job market - it's hard enough out there as it is! Wishing everyone a fantastic post-holiday season and a prosperous New Year! #recruiting #recruiters #scamalert #careers #jobboards #fakejobs

A PSA for job searchers! We've been made aware that Hook is unfortunately one of the many companies being used in a recruiting scam. This time around, there's a scammer named "Scott Riley" claiming to be a Hook recruiter who is emailing people with resumes on Indeed to set up interviews via Skype for a Freelance Photographer role. Keep in mind, this is happening to many companies, big and small, right now. They’re reaching out about full-time and freelance positions, using different names and various email domains. Job searching can be tough enough, so we’ve pulled together some tips to protect yourself from fake recruiters: - If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Plain and simple. Take your time to review the outreach closely.  - Check that email domain. Keep an eye out for the fishy ones like .store and .site or free email services like Yahoo, and always reference the official company site to check contact info. For example, Hook’s legitimate recruiters will only contact you through official @byhook.com email addresses. - Visit the careers page of the company and verify that the role and description match the recruiter's outreach, especially if their initial message is vague. - Most company career pages will have a careers@ or jobs@ email alias that you can reach out to to confirm legitimacy.  - Is the person on LinkedIn? In this day and age, ain't no way a recruiter doesn't have a LinkedIn profile. If they do, check to see if they are verified or if they have the company they claim to be working for listed and tagged as their current employer.  - If a job offer comes way too soon (before any interviews or only after one interview) and the individual is pushing you to sign immediately, this is a warning sign. Legitimate employers will respect your decision to take time to review and think about the offer.  - Do not provide any personal information to these individuals. We will never ask you for things like IDs, Passports, banking information, etc. until after you have started at our agency and during our onboarding or orientation period. #recruitingscam #fakerecruiters

ALERT: Scammers are hijacking job ads. "Scammers are taking ads from real employers, changing them, and posting them on employment websites and career-oriented platforms like Indeed or LinkedIn. The modified ads seem to be real job offers with legitimate companies. They’re not." Some tricks to watch out for: - They reach out to you via social media or teams - They use a public email address such as gmail.com or outlook.com - The website or email address is slightly off from the real companies address - They send you a form asking for personal information - They set up a quick interview and something seems off (call only, too short, too basic, poor audio, no video, not professional) - The offer comes very quickly - THEY SEND YOU A CHECK! yes, seems odd right? It is. An honset employer will never send you a check. A common trick is they send you a check to buy a computer so you can start your remote job. You deposit the check and everything seems fine. Then they ask for a portion of the money to be sent back (insert made up reason here), you send them back part of the money. A few days or weeks later the check they sent you bounces. It can take up to 21 days for a check to clear, they take advantage of that. Be a cybersecurity savvy job seeker!  If you experience any doubt about the validity of an interview or job offer, reach out directly to the company’s HR team via their corporate website and/or through employees on LinkedIn.  Ask questions.  You may end up uncovering fraudulent activity and protecting people from these bad actors. I am seeing this happen a lot recently and it is hard to see hopeful job seekers be preyed upon. PLEASE SHARE and HELP SPREAD THE WORD.

Here is a midweek reminder that #SCAMMERS in the staffing world are hot hot hot right now! Unfortunately, I had a conversation with a candidate who thought she had been speaking with someone who represented our company. She had gone through multiple interviews with them and had even sent in her personal information to start the onboarding process. Today, they messaged her asking her to get a prepaid credit card for the computer equipment and to download an app to begin tracking her time once she started. The red flags went up. She went to the corporate website and called us directly to follow up. Thankfully so! She sent me the information they'd sent her including the offer letter with our business logo and information all on it. They even signed in the CEO's name! It all looks so real! Heartbreak for the candidate and so difficult as a recruiter to break the news to her that the position wasn't real. This is especially heightened in #remote jobs. Targeting entry level positions, helpdesk and customer service roles etc. but we've seen it on higher level roles as well. Do not hesitate to ever reach out to a corporate office via their website if something seems shady - there's a good chance it is! #scam #recruiting #jobseekers #jobtips #fakejobs #techjobs #CSR #workfromhome