How to detect a job offer is fraudulent
We live in a world full of opportunities. Those who don’t have an opportunity are looking for one and those who have an opportunity are looking for more. But the world is both pretty and ugly at the same time.
There were times before the internet age when the only way for people to apply for a job was referring to newspaper ads, going to walkins, dropping their resumes at a company office and hope for a call back from them OR even refer to yellow pages and telephone directories and make cold calls to secure an appointment with an official at the office.
But, with the evolution of the digital age, things have changed completely. People are not only applying remotely, they are interviewed, hired and paid remotely. In fact their entire digital portfolio is present where things can be verified. But at the same time, there is a lot of lies that lurk around in the name of job opportunities and what not.
While lies and liars continue to do what they do in all areas of life, I am talking particularly about fake job offers and what we can do detect them so we can protect ourselves from being conned. Here are a few tips that can help us identify such job offers:-
- They sound like an opportunity of a lifetime which came too easy
A fake job offer always offers you a salary and benefits that sound too good to be true. You feel like things are finally looking up and you will have everything that you want. The reality is that while there are some very good jobs offering heavy remuneration and benefits, a genuine one will not be very easy to get in the first place. There could be series of in person and several online interviews and sessions before you can get them plus it will be incrementally inline with what work experience you already have. - Fake recruiters never come face to face
There will be people calling you regarding the job opportunity and they may be just in contact with you over emails and not talk to you at all. - The position is overseas many times
A lot of times, they mention that you will be required to join some overseas office of the company on whose name fake recruiters are pitching a job offer. These people generally steal contact information from the corporate contact info pages of the official websites of many companies and mention them in their fraudulent emails. The thing to know here is that companies usually do not hire any candidate from overseas until there is no suitable candidate matching those requirements within their own city. Sometimes and many times, they do not even pick people from a different city if they have option to fill that position with a candidate who is local. So if you have an offer where you are being promised a position overseas, you have to ask yourself a question that whether it is for a skill unique enough that they may not be finding it within their own country or not? - Domains used for email communications
Fake people are fake so there is no way they can use a domain for sending emails to you with the corporate email as it is secure. Usually the domain names they use to send email communications contain the name of the company they are pitching for but it is not real. For example:-
You may be receiving communications from hr@companyname-projects.com but the actual company domain is hr@companyname.com.
You notice the difference here. The company domain is <companyname.com> but the fake recruiter used <companyname-projects.com> here.
The best way to find this out by simply doing a google search with the domain name that the recruiter is using. Either you will not see a single site with that name in the indexed searches or if it does result in a site, then carefully examine the site. Usually these sites a poorly constructed by an unprofessional with spelling mistakes and floating and broken links and many more.
Another thing you can do is looking up the company name online in google search. If it takes you to a company website sitting on a different domain name than what’s reflected in the emails, then it’s a red flag. Also, there are some very diligent corporations that put articles in their newsfeeds to alert people with these fraudulent domain names advertising fake jobs in their name. - They ask for money
Fraudsters are doing all of this for a reason and the reason is money. A fake job offer always comes with some money demands, either in the name of getting you a work visa, or a certification or your accomodation and everything in between. The rule of thumb is that a genuine employer will never ever ask you for money.
While these cons are becoming more and more organized and trying their best to look as good as real as they can be. The fact remains that they are not real and there is one or the other thing that they will miss out on and things will reveal themselves. The purpose of this article is to tell innocent people about looking for signs so they can save themselves a lot of work and time and most of all save themselves from putting their hopes and emotions into a pipe dream.
Until then stay safe and stay informed :) and you can reach me on priyadarshani.pandey@gmail.com or connect with me on Linkedin @ Priyadarshani Pandey | LinkedIn, Check out more information about my work — Techconceptz By Priyadarshani | ai maths
