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| Photo by George Milton |
As part of the job-seeking community, I have applied for so many openings online. There are now more job options both here in the country and overseas. Because of that, it can be difficult to discern which jobs or companies are real. I have encountered some of these scams myself. Here are some of the examples of those scams that I have experienced:
Fake Job Offers
I got a message on LinkedIn from someone who offered me a job out of the blue. Although I was looking for work then, I never applied for the company that he represented. I thought that was a red flag already, but I still replied to his message expressing my interest.
He gave details about the position that he was offering but they felt vague. I asked a lot of questions to clarify what it was about. The responses that came back gave information on the job but did not answer the questions I had given. I felt he was avoiding the questions. Yet another red flag.
After a while, the person stopped replying to me. I'm guessing it was because I kept repeating the questions that he did not answer. I later learned that there were people who made fake job offers to scam you once you had accepted the job.
The lesson here is that you need to ask the right questions and they need to provide you with realistic answers. I was being offered a huge amount of money for a job that did not have that much information. If you think it is too good to be true, then it probably is.
Multi-Level Marketing/ Asks for Upfront Fee
Many people are offering to help you to become a virtual assistant. I once inquired about this on Instagram from an account that assured good training and pay. I already had a friend who was doing this but for another company, so I wanted to see what it was about.
After they provided a brief introduction, they invited me to an online seminar about the job. Before I committed to attending the seminar, I decided to do some research first. I did an online search and found out that people were regretting accepting the seminar. People were saying it turned out to be something like multi-level marketing. You had to pay to register to be a virtual assistant, and you had to recruit people under you, and so on. I decided to pass on the seminar after that.
Jobs That Need You to Register for a Site with a Fee or Install Programs with Malware
I applied for and passed the exams for a job to be a writer. This was a position that was posted on LinkedIn. Among the conditions of becoming a writer, I had to register for a site to get jobs. The site was free, but it said that you can only get good-paying jobs if you registered for membership. I thought that was suspicious, so I searched online (again) to see what other people did. Sure enough, it turned out that most did get jobs there but that you needed to be a member. The problem was that the membership was not worth the money you earn from the jobs. Plus, once they wanted to cancel the membership, they found out there was no option to do so on the site. That meant they were still charged for membership even when they were no longer using it.
Another job that I got required that I install a program to do online surveys. Once I downloaded the file, my virus scanner recognized it as malware and blocked it. I tried messaging the site I got it from but never got a response. Thank goodness for virus scanners!
Jobs That Need You to Submit Too Much Personal Information
I once took an online assessment that required too much personal information. As someone who used to work in HR, I knew that some information felt like overkill to ask from an applicant. When it came to one part of the exam that asked for a scan of several IDs, I knew that I had to pass. It seemed like too much information to give for a job from people I can’t even see face to face. I can’t say for sure if this was a real job or not, but at that point, it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t want to be a victim of identity theft, so I passed on the assessment.
Jobs That Ask for Too Much Personal Time
Another job I applied for required that my computer have certain specifications. I needed them to pass the assessment. I thought that was fine since most online jobs do that. But for them to need you to have the exact specs during the interview felt a bit much for me. If I had no assurance that I would pass, why would I spend on what they required right away? I thought that was too much.
The bigger red flag was that I was still getting emails from the company to do the interview even when I passed on it. I did some research and found that while they did give you a job, the pay was not that good. Plus, they asked about your social media. They preferred that you stop all social media to get the job. The reason? You will not have time to do the work if you spend time on social media. I thought that was a bit much, so I ignored their emails after that.
Jobs That Make You Do Free Work
I had applied for several writing jobs and some wanted me to submit writing samples. Some had a required word count and topic. They also preferred that it was something that you have not published anywhere else. I had submitted a few of those but later learned that some job postings do that to scam writers to do free work for them. I stopped submitting my writing after that. If they wanted samples, they could check out the blog.
I’m sure that there are many more job scams out there that I have not mentioned in this post. The best way to sum this up is that you need to be careful about the jobs you apply for. Do your due diligence and research on the companies you are sending your information to. Check out online reviews from people who have dealt with these companies. That way you can avoid the mistakes that they made and can make better decisions.
There was one company that seemed legitimate to me at first but their website was a red flag. I looked through it and it seemed good. That was until I came across some of their pages that had the template text "loren ipsum...(you know the rest)." I immediately withdrew my application after that. If you were a legitimate company, you would have a website that wasn't like that. And even if they were a real company, it seemed that it was not the kind of place I would want to work for anyway.
Some jobs may sound legitimate, but you start having a gut feeling that something is not right. Whatever it is, if you sense a red flag, it is best to not continue engaging with them. It doesn't matter if you started the application process and had interviews. Thank them for the opportunity and move on to something else.
Being scammed while applying for a job is something that happens to a lot of people. They may trick you into doing free work, be defrauded out of money, or worse, become victims of identity theft. It can happen to anyone, no matter how smart you are. These scammers can be very good at what they do. They cover their bases to make sure that you buy into what they are offering. So be careful!
I hope that my post has given you an idea of the types of job scams out there so that you can identify and avoid them. Protect yourself from these scams. I know it is hard to find a job these days. There is so much competition now that you apply online, but it is best to be careful to avoid becoming a victim.
Have you had any experience with job scams? What did you do about it? Do you have any tips to share about avoiding them? Let me know in the comments section!
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