Holiday Job Scams
Its the holiday season.. Time for being merry and bright and for scammers ramping up to rob you blind.
Who’da thunk it? Job ads are popping up in social media feeds, the internet and inboxes promising some extraordinarily well-paying jobs — if applicants provide their Social Security numbers and other details upfront. Beware scammers may be looking to access your personal credentials.
Job Scams are a problem – have been for quite a while. The Better Business Bureau estimated 14 million victims with $2 billion in direct losses related to job scams.
And the problem worsened in 2020. Losses reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center about employment scams were up – way up.
A common outcome of job scams is ID Theft. The scammers often steal job seekers’ personal info to open bank accounts. One estimate found 34% of victims provided their driver’s license number and 25% provided their Social Security or Social Insurance number to the “Scam Employers”.
Scammers may even post jobs with 6 figure salaries to lure in the unsuspecting and then use their Personal Info to commit fraud.
In one case a very realistic employment website for Spirit airlines was created using the airline’s photos, text, font and color code. The phony site asks applicants to upload a copy of both sides of their driver’s license at the outset of the process and sends them an email seeking more information from a web address that resembles Spirit’s website with an extra “i” (spiiritairline.com).
Fake job ads are even showing up through social media feeds. In some cases, they show up in your in box. Sometimes unsolicited job offers show up after the target uploads a resume to a real job search site – accessed by scammers posing as a potential employer. .
Here are some basic guidelines to help avoid being scammed:
- Do Your Do Diligence: Check out potential employers. Search online for a company’s name, email address, and phone number. If you’ve heard of the company, look on its website, call or email to find out if the job is real.
- Avoid work-at-home ads guaranteeing big money. No one can predict how much money you’ll actually make working for yourself.
- Never Give out Your Social Security # or bank account number, or other personal information over email or phone.
- Never agree to a background check unless you have met the employer in person.
- Never apply for a job that is emailed to you out of the blue
And please give serious consideration to getting Insurance Coverage and/or an ID remediation service.
Call us – we can help!