Online Job Scams – How to Stay Safe when Hunting for a Job?

Online job portals present an easy and convenient medium for job seekers as they can search and apply for opportunities sitting at the comfort of their place. The time and era has gone when ‘Searching for a job’ meant to visit office to office physically. But as we know that convenience comes at a cost, there are some serious security risks associated with online job searching.

Be it a small enterprise or a big brand, they ask for personal information from candidates who apply for work. However, there are people or groups over the internet who target job seekers in order to execute their malicious scams. While taking a step further in one’s career is an exciting move, individuals seeking jobs easily get trapped into the hands of such fraudulent worms.

The ways these scammers trap innocent people are many – sending fake employment emails, making job consultation calls and so forth. But what do they get by trapping employment seekers? Personal Information. One’s name, mobile number, address, family and financial info, etc. which they use for their personal benefit. 

How to Detect a Fake Job Offer?

There are a number of ways through which job seekers can spot online job scams and save themselves from getting in trouble. Take a look:

Check Contact Details

The phone number and email address of the company are the two primary things that should be checked. Does the company name exist online? Does the email address of the sender a professional one?  Does the area code of the phone number matching with the company address? Figure this out. 

Check Online Presence

Having an online presence these days is a trend and almost all companies understand its importance. So, your next step is to check the website of the company by searching for its name and address. Check whether the details provided to you match with those available on the internet or not.

Check Salary Offered

Job scams generally try to lure individuals by offering extraordinary salaries and talk a lot in this context as compared to other job details. You need to put a realistic eye on the amount offered to you and if it is something impractical, then there’s a possibility that it’s a scam.

Check Language and Grammar

Job emails from legitimate companies are professionally written, whereas, scam messages have noticeable language and grammatical errors. However, be sure that you are not mistaking a genuine job offer for just one or two errors.

Check Experience Required

Job scams generally try to lure candidates by advertising ‘no experience’ required policy. But again, you need to be realistic in such situations. If they are offering a senior post without asking for any experience then you need to think twice.

Check Fee

This one is a clear cut indication of a job scam. Real companies never ask you for money in the form of a registration fee. But if the company that has sent you a job offer and is demanding some fee in order to register you is certainly a fake one.

Online Security Measures to Stay Safe

• Whenever applying for a job using the internet, prefer doing so through the official website of the company.

• While creating your resume for job application, keep a double check on the information that you are providing. Too much of information can lead to cases of identity theft.

• When applying from third party job portals, make sure to check their reliability. Search for user reviews to get an idea about their service.

• Never click on any links or attachments that are sent to you via job-related emails. These links and attachments might lead to malware installed on your device.

• Always protect your computer system and mobile device using an advanced antivirus software.  

Ever encountered an online job scam? Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section.