Finding a job in today's world is hard enough as it is. Unfortunately, there are also organizations out there whose sole mission seems to be to crush the hopes and dreams of job seekers. Having spent my fair share of time looking for a job in recent months I have had a chance to experience this firsthand.
More and more I am seeing company information conveniently left off of online job postings. It's as if job posters are getting lazy. The information about what the job actually entails is usually sparse as well. With so many people desperate for jobs right now employers have learned that pretty much all they need to do is say "Looking for someone to come work" and they will be flooded with resumes. Because I have been just as desperate as everybody else, I too have applied to several of these vague postings. I have always been skeptical about situations that seem too good to be true, however, and when contacted by these people I always try and do a little research about what I might be getting into. Sometimes on their followup emails they still don't give me a company name and I end up having to research them by the domain name of their email address. More often than not the information I uncover proves these companies to be nothing more than a scam. They have no intention of giving me a job, but would love to have more of my information that they can sell to the highest bidder.
People searching for jobs are probably pretty stressed out as it is. Then to have someone dangle a job in their faces only to pull it back at the last second and say, "Only joking, I just wanted to sell your contact information to my business partners" is just downright depressing. Do these soul suckers really have nothing better to do than dash the hopes and dreams of America's most wanting?
I have even gotten calls where I was clearly told I had already qualified for their job and as long as I went to fill out a last survey of information I could start work. Obviously this set off all kinds of warning alarms and I was able to uncover the truth before I gave away my social security number.
During my research of some of these fake companies I have also come across postings by other "employers" telling me that what I'm looking into is definitely a scam but if I'm serious about finding work they have some trusted places for me to check out. As you can imagine, these were all scams as well.
Yesterday I got a call from someone telling me he saw where I had submitted to them that I was looking to continue my education. I quickly told the gentleman I had no intention of continuing my education at this time and not to ever call again. I only wonder what checkbox I missed or what fake application I filled out that got them on my trail.
If you are looking for a job right now I wish you luck and beg you to exercise caution. Take nothing at face value. If a job opportunity seems too good to be true, it probably is.
This is the first time I've heard of people phishing with job applicants. That is a horrible thing to be doing to people, especially as hard as it is to find work these days.
ReplyDelete