Warning – Employer Matches

Numerous emails appear almost every day from employermatch.co.uk and the same messages from careercandy.com and wherejobs.co.uk

The titles of the emails are strange, such as:-

  1. Help Requested
  2. Urgent Tesco Openings in Walton-on-Thames

There is no Tesco in Walton-on-Thames and there isn’t one planned.

  1. Urgent ASDA Employment in Weybridge

There is no ASDA in Weybridge – the nearest is about 10 miles away.

  1. Cabin Crew needed in Walton-on-Thames

No airplanes in Walton-on-Thames that I know of.

Employer Match is not a recruitment agency and does not appear to have any jobs to advertise.

Instead they copy job adverts from recruitment agencies and present them as if their own and send out huge volumes of emails with misleading titles and misleading content.

e.g. one email had a Librarian Assistant as the first job vacancy but if you click on it then the site changes to Retail Choice advertising site, showing an assistant manager job vacancy – nothing to do with libraries.

On the Employer Match website there is a search facility – if you put Library assistant and press search – it tells you there are 1,355 Library Assistant jobs near Weybridge.  I would guess that there are at most half a dozen such job vacancies within the whole of Surrey and it would need hundreds of libraries to employ a total of 1,355 Library assistants.  Weybridge has just one library with only a handful of staff in total.

How does Employer Match make money from their spam emails and website?

That is unknown.

The website claims the company is registered in Poole, Dorset but the home page shows jobs in America and the website seems to be hosted from America.

It does seem to be a strange new form of Marketing that is producing huge amounts of misleading spam messages.

Best avoided.

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Facebook Marketplace Scams

Facebook Marketplace is an online shop where you can buy and sell items and services. It’s Facebook’s equivalent to Craigslist ad it includes Facebook Checkout for payment services.

There are a great many scammers on Facebook and even if you’ve been in contact with someone on Facebook for some time – do not believe that you know them and they are who they say they are.

The most common scams on Marketplace are:-

  • Fake products: counterfeits are much cheaper than genuine
  • Romance scams: people use fake photos to lure victims into a fake romance then con money from them
  • Family emergency: a family member’s Facebook page is taken over hacked and their contacts sente a plea for financial assistance
  • Prizes: Lots of prizes to collect – once you have handed over your personal information. There are no prizes of course
  • Celebrity scams: You will see photos of celebrities who supposedly promote some product or service. These are fake and difficult for the celebrities to have these removed quickly enough to stop people being scammed.

Tips on Staying Safe on Marketplace

  1. Only use Facebook Checkout, PayPal, or cash – not money transfer services or anything else
  2. If someone buys from you and claims to have made an accidental overpayment then asks for that money back – be very suspicious as this is a common scam. It can take up to 10 days for a cheque payment to clear beyond being cancelled
  3. Be Aware of Fake Facebook Accounts – there is a huge number of these
  4. If you’re going to meet with your buyer or seller, make sure it a safe public place – do not let a stranger into your home

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Tips on Facebook Privacy

If you’re happy with the amount of information that Facebook has about you, then no problem.

But if Facebook’s intrusion into your private life does concern you, then there are ways to reduce what they know about you.

  1. Revoke app permissions

It is convenient to let other APPS and websites use your Facebook login and password rather than having to create and remember yet another login and password.

But that gives Facebook a lot of information on your activities on those APP – that’s probably why Facebook let you login to other APPS using your Facebook credentials.

Click on the arrow in the top right hand corner of your screen, then select Settings and Privacy then APPS and websites to review which services use your Facebook credentials and consider revoking them.

  1. Categories used to target adverts at you

Facebook collects your data so that they can sell it to advertisers.

But you can which categories they have you in and delete them.

In Settings and Privacy select Ads and you’ll see the categories and be able to change them.

  1. Turn off Location History

If you turn off Location Tracking on your smart phone then Facebook on that phone cannot track locations.

You may want to turn this feature off in your computer as well.

Settings and Privacy, then select Settings, then select Location and you cans top Facebook trying to track where you are.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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The Blessing Loom Money System

This is an old scam that comes up in new forms every so often.

It is generally known as “The Blessing Loom”, but also sometimes as “The Infinity Loom” or “Giving Circle”.

The basic idea is very simple.

The originators recruit new members who pay an entry fee and then recruit further members to pay in. Meanwhile the originators take these entry fees and can back out of the scheme whenever they want to.

It is a form of Ponzi scheme (a.k.a. Pyramid scheme) where new members pay earlier members and the cycle of recruitment continues.

Eventually the scam goes away, only to resurface at some later date.

In 2020, the state of Utah had significant problems with The Blessing Loom as large numbers of people fell for the scam and lost a lot of money. The main version in circulation charged women $100 to join and had the promise of an $800 pay-out.

The picture of an octagon at the top shows 8 names. The idea is that you pay to get one spot and in time your name moves into the middle then all 8 people sent you the money. But, as always with these schemes a few make money and everyone else loses. You cannot make money appear from nowhere except by conning people.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Stupidest Spam of the Week Robot Cleaner

Robot vacuum cleaners are a common target for scammers.

Usually they pick some little known robot cleaner, copy photos, add some text and send out emails by the million advertising the cleaner.

Sometimes this is just trying to sell rubbish products to people at high prices with the intention of making fast money and disappearing.

Other times, there is no product – just scammers copying other scammers but not even bothering with a product.

This latest set of emails sent out by the million has photos of a weird looking cleaner but it is the description that marks it plainly as a scam.

e.g.

“Soft cotton water absorbent cloth water absorbent cloth”

“Bottom cleaning experts”

“Anti-lock design”

“Let your life full of health”

“Intelligent to stop drop sensing”

But clearly not intelligent enough to write a description that makes any sense.

The message also lists prices which start at 129 for one but doesn’t say what currency the prices are.

Perhaps it’s 129 pennies, but probably not.

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