subject: Protect Yourself From Online Job Scams [print this page] Protect Yourself From Online Job Scams Protect Yourself From Online Job Scams
It used to be when doing a job search, candidates would pick up the Sunday want ads and scan through their favorite categories. Today, virtually all job searching takes place on the internet at places such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, HotJobs.com, and many others. In addition to the most well-known sites, there are specialized sites such as theLadders.com, which specializes in job placement for those looking to start at a salary of $100,000 plus. Dice.com is another example of a specialized job search site that caters to the information technology job seeker. Most of us don't think twice about posting our resumes on these sites but we all should be cautious. Things such as identity theft, scams, information harvesting, and more can happen to unsuspecting job applicants unless they use these suggestions:
Take a look at your online profile at each site. You should see a setting which either lists your resume as something like confidential or private. At some sites, private means no one can search and find your resume information; however, confidential will list everything except your personal data. Be sure to check into the security options of every site your resume is posted on.
Beware of various scams that can come disguised as legitimate job offers. Three such scams are:
Work-at-home scams
Money laundering scams
Reshipping scams
Work-at-home scams typically involve paying an up-front fee to receive materials related to the work you supposedly will be doing. You either end up overpaying for something or end up getting nothing in return for your money. Examples include: stuffing envelopes, get paid to surf the web, sending emails, medical billing software, and more.
Money laundering scams are easy to spot and rely a bit on your gullibility and dishonesty. This type of scam requires you to deposit checks into your bank account and write checks back to another person. By way of doing so you are depositing bad/illegal money into your account and making it good. Hence the term money laundering. You could end up being arrested if you participate in this type of activity.
Reshipping scams have the 'employee' receiving stolen goods, holding them at their residence, and reshipping them to other people. In this scam, you act as a drop-ship laundering service. Needless to say, this too is illegal and you may subject to arrest. Scams of this sort have been known to span the globe. Frequently, the 'employee' will receive shipments from overseas.
Just being aware that these scams are out there can be enough to keep your guard up and keep you out of trouble. Another thing is to be certain that you have chosen a strong password for your user name to each site. Good passwords include three out of four of the following: upper-case letters, lower-case letters, special characters, and/or numbers. Minimum password length should be eight characters.
It' not the intent of this article to scare a person into staying away from the many great online job search sites, but rather call attention to the fact that criminals use these sites too. With these tips you should now know enough not to fall victim to a job search scam.
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