A payment request, an overly tempting proposal, the request for personal and banking details and even the offer of an unpaid trial period are some of the more suspicious elements that characterize a false job offer.
Regarding these warning signs, Andrea Ávila, CEO of the human resources consultancy Randstad for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, underlines: “In a context of increasing virtuality and digitalisation of many transactions, exchanges and activities, Cyber scams and theft of information and personal data have become commonplace. For what work means in people’s lives, Fake job offers are becoming more and more common among the social engineering tactics that criminals use to gain the trust of potential victims they try to deceive.
In this context, talent management experts at Randstad have identified six indicators that should attract attention and indicate that a job offer may be fake:
1. They ask for payment of management or documentation costs. It is very important to know that all expenses of a selection process must be borne by the company or HR consultancy firm that carries it out. If they ask you for money, you are most likely faced with a fake job offer.
2. The proposal is too tempting. If a job offer offers a remuneration that is too high or significantly higher than that normally paid in the market and without requiring specialized knowledge or experience in the position, it is most likely a scam.
3. They ask for personal data at the beginning of the process. If the company in question asks for sensitive personal data, banking information or keys of any kind at the beginning of the selection process, it is definitely a fraudulent personal data collection operation and not a personnel selection process.
4. Lack of information. In a job search process, you should always investigate the company you want to apply for. If the company does not have a website, an email with its own domain, a profile on social networks, does not provide detailed information on the position offered and does not have a history of activity in Google searches, this is a warning sign which could indicate that it is a scam.
5. Spelling and communication. Every serious company takes care of its image, so the form of contact and communication will be very careful, with impeccable grammar and spelling. If there are many errors in an advert, it is very likely that it is a fake job offer.
6. Unpaid trial period. If the company tells you that you have to work for a period of time without receiving compensation in return, this is undoubtedly a fraudulent job offer.
“Fraudulent job offers are not only a great disappointment to those who are actively looking for work, but it can create an even bigger problemsuch as a scam and theft of personal data which in turn can lead to identity theft, financial fraud or online harassment,” warned Ávila.
Source: Clarin
