Kaye Monty

Although job scams have been around it seems that there are more of them out there trying to take advantage of the high unemployment rate.  I remember going to a job back in the wake of the dot com crash.  I was so excited to get an interview but was quickly disappointed to learn that it was a group interview.  In the 13 years that I have been working in recruitment, I have never ever heard of a group interview.  How could they possibly interview that many people and be able to weed out the good candidates from the not so good candidates?  It made me realize that they didn’t really care about the quality of the applicants because the turn over was probably very high.  I picked up my bag and left after five minutes. If it does not feel right or if it sounds too good to be true then you should walk away.

Rachel King from BusinessWeek wrote an article about the increase of identity theft targeting job seekers. Scam artists are posing as employers trying to convince job seekers to provide their personal information. Please note that employers can not legally ask you to provide your social security, date of birth, passport info etc. during the application process.  The only time that you have to legally provide the information is after you have accepted the job offer.  They may ask you to sign an agreement for a background check or a credit check.  Sometimes this is included in the application form but often times it is on a separate form. A potential employer will do their due dilligence and conduct a reference and/or background check on a potential employee.  You should also conduct your due dilligence on your potential employer.