Job fraud involves tricking job seekers into applying for fake job openings, often through work-from-home schemes or phishing. Identity theft is also used to apply for jobs. To avoid being scammed, job seekers should fact-check and confirm company legitimacy, ask questions, and protect personal information.
The crime of job fraud involves both job hunters and companies looking for employees. The types of employment fraud that exist include employment fraud, which usually occurs in the form of work from home schemes, and identity theft. Individuals must take precautionary measures to identify and protect against fraud and deception.
Job fraud occurs when thieves trick people into applying for fake job openings. This deception known as professional fraud, in particular, involves setting up a bogus company and tricking people into applying for non-existent positions. Fraudsters often offer “too good to be true” perks like an easy job for high pay. The unsuspecting victim usually ends up participating in work-from-home schemes such as envelope stuffing, phishing, or forwarding businesses.
Envelope stuffing in professional fraud involves people working from home to fill multiple envelopes. The problem is that the scammers require these “employees” to pay for registration and other supplies. Those who participate in this home business scheme never get paid, but the scammers end up collecting money from registration and supply fees.
Another type of job fraud, phishing, occurs when a scammer posts a seemingly valid job opening in print or online. A person applies for the position under the assumption that it is legitimate, but the scammer actually deceives the applicant by providing personal details such as an email address, physical address, social security number, and full name. The information is sold to third parties, often resulting in the requester receiving annoying solicitations such as spam emails or worse.
The third type of job-related employment fraud provides job seekers with opportunities for despatch. In this case, the person’s job responsibility involves receiving stolen goods from a fraudster. The victim then sends the packages to another scammer, usually unaware that she is participating in the crime.
In addition to employment fraud, another category of employment fraud comes in the form of identity theft. Not only do thieves steal personal information to apply for credit or other accounts, but they can also use it to apply for jobs. These scammers use a few different techniques to spoof an identity, including stealing, dumpster diving, and cheating.
To get a job under an assumed name or Social Security number, for example, a scammer could steal a wallet or purse to gain access to identification items such as Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, checks and credit cards. Just like other identity thieves, business thieves also sort through trash to harvest addresses, account numbers, or birthdates from old mail. Fraudsters often acquire personal information from banks or other companies under false pretenses, such as impersonating the victim or producing false documents. This trick often allows a scammer to apply for a job using the victim’s personal information.
People can avoid being scammed through job fraud by fact-checking, confirming, and being careful when providing personal information. Job seekers should conduct research by checking websites, telephone directories, and other company resources that verify a company’s legitimacy. You should also ask questions about company history and policies, as well as job opening details. Employee references also help verify company details and offers should be made in writing for confirmation. Finally, people can protect themselves from workplace fraud by not disclosing optional information such as driver’s license numbers and by never providing a Social Security number unless the job has been established as legitimate.
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