How to Tell a Job Offer from an ID Theft Trap

Gwin said LinkedIn told him roughly 100 people applied before the phony ads were removed for abusing the company’s terms of service.“The endgame was to offer a job based on successful completion of background check which obviously requires entering personal information,” Gwin said. Siegel said the “recruiter” sent her a list of screening questions that all seemed relevant to the position being advertised.Siegel said that within about an hour of submitting her answers, she received a reply saying the company’s board had unanimously approved her as a new hire, with an incredibly generous salary considering she had to do next to no work to get a job she could do from home.Worried that her potential new dream job might be too-good-to-be-true, she sent the recruiter a list of her own questions that she had about the role and its position within the company.But the recruiter completely ignored Siegel’s follow-up questions, instead sending a reply that urged her to get in touch with a contact in human resources to immediately begin the process of formalizing her employment. But the real losses each year from employment scams are likely far higher; as the Justice Department often points out, relatively few victims of these crimes report the matter to the IC3.LinkedIn said its platform uses automated and manual defenses to detect and address fake accounts or fraudulent payments.“Any accounts or job posts that violate our policies are blocked from the site,” LinkedIn said in response to a request for comment. But the scam that ensnared Gwin and Siegel is more of a hybrid, in that the majority of it operates outside of LinkedIn’s control via email services like Gmail and Yahoo.This, by the way, should be a major red flag for anyone searching for a job, says the FBI: “Potential employers contact victims through non-company email domains and teleconference applications.”Here are some other telltale signs of a job scam, as per the FBI:-Interviews are not conducted in-person or through a secure video call. Expect to talk with a real person.Simpler Method: If it comes from an Indian firm, heave it.“Potential employers contact victims through non-company email domains and teleconference applications.” This describes exactly the experience with some real jobs these days; a small or medium company does not perform the initial screening with their own HR department, but all contact is via a recruiting company or FaceTime / Zoom.