Beware of Scam Job Advertisments
As we have said multiple times, scammers are getting smarter and smarter and are involved with mostly everything. You may have witnessed scammers that are trying to rip off tourists and don't tell me that you are not familiar with online crypto scams. Something else that you may not be that familiar though but it's quite important to note, are scams that are targeting everyone that is looking for a new role.
Now when i talk about scams around jobs, i don't mean the usual pyramid schemes. This is actually a more elaborate scam that even people with substantial working experience have been scammed. The reason is that these scammers have actually paid close attention to many details, details that otherwise could prove "fatal" for them. Let me give you an actual example of how they operate.
When most of us are searching for a job, most likely we will search through popular job boards and platforms including LinkedIn ofc. These scammers, either create a fake company page or a fake account. To understand if the company exists or not it's quite easy with a simple search. The "smarter" kind of scammers focus on building a fake profile.
So they build a fake profile posing as a recruiter, with a photo that looks professional, and an online CV showing other job positions they previously had in other companies and they try to get some connections for both real and fake accounts. That way nobody can actually understand whether they are fake or not.
So you get approached by one of them who seemingly works at a well-known company. You talked and he/she proposed an interview. You actually have an interview via Google Meets, Zoom or Skype, maybe even a second interview as well. Then via LinkedIn, they let you know that are hired.
Now most of these "positions" are for a remote opening and most people get excited over remote. So the next step is equipment. Here is the interesting part, before you sign a contract or something they will tell the candidates that they need to pay a certain amount for their equipment and that they will get paid back with their first paycheck. They need to send the money to a certain account and poof the scammers get away with money and you lose both money and most likely your current job as well.
How To Spot These Scammers
Simply, don't send money to anyone before signing. It's common to pay for your equipment for some companies but you will have a contract first and you won't have to pay the company for this, most likely you will need to buy on your own your said equipment. Also, check back with company the "recruiter" seems to work for.
You can contact other employees of the said company or directly the company. People have already done that and avoided scams and i remember 1-2 years ago a famous company due to the amounts of scammers using their company for marketing purposes to attract "candidates", made an actual post both via Linkedin and on their website that nobody will ask you to pay for your equipment.
In general scams like these are serious and even EUROPOL has made a post about this which you find here
Posted Using InLeo Alpha