There are increasing numbers of fake job adverts on the Internet, by email and in newspapers.

If someone you don’t know contacts you and effectively offers you a job then unless you have in demand skills and have been headhunted by an agency, it’s very likely to be a scam.

There are other warning signs that a job advert is a scam.

• The pay is much higher than you would expect for the work or for your skills.
• You are effectively told the job is yours without the need for interviews etc.
• The conditions are too good e.g. part-time for a full time salary, working from home for whatever hours you wish etc.
• The interview is by Skype – may mean there are no offices
• The job requirements are so vague as to let almost anyone qualify
• Unprofessional emails or letters – poor grammar, spelling mistakes etc.
• Emails that don’t include company name and contact information or are sent from a personal email account i.e. a Hotmail or Gmail or Yahoo account etc.

If you do agree to an online interview – make sure to ask lots of questions and don’t give out any confidential information.

Research

Do your research on the company. Do they really have such a vacancy?

For any real company there will be useful information on the Internet. If there is only a record of the company’s existence but no website or anything else – then beware.

Try typing the company name or the senders email address and the word scam in your search engine.

Sometimes scammers will use a real company’s name and perhaps misspell it slightly  e.g. If you get an email from marksandspencr.com then it’s a fake.

Confidential Information

Some scammers ask for your bank account information supposedly so they can set-up your salary payment or they may ask you to create a new bank account and give them the details.  You will not receive any money unless it is crooked money they want you to transfer to someone else.

If asked to fill in an insurance form or credit check or anything else needing confidential information – don’t. That should only happen once you are in the job and know it is real.

Request for Payment

A request for payment of any kind before starting employment is going to mean a scam.

You may be asked to pay for training, a uniform, a professional review of your cv etc. These should not happen in a legitimate situation.

Be careful and check out the details.

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