Job scams are on the rise! (Fake job adverts, advertising fake jobs).
They often target students who are, perhaps not as experienced as other job hunters and who may be looking for part-time and temporary vacancies.
Job scammers tend to be after three things:
- Your personal details.
- Your money (or bank/credit card details).
- To sell a completely different position to you (underhanded recruiters).
These scammers will post fake job adverts online and then trick people into either handing over information or attending interviews that aren’t right for them.
So how can you make sure this doesn’t happen to you?
Kevin Nelson, professional educator and private tutor spills the beans:
9 Tips for Students: How to Avoid Scam Job Postings
As people search for jobs via the Internet where it is hard to check whether there is a real person behind the screen or simply a robot sending out standard requests, (and impossible to know what intentions people offering the job have) a great number of individuals get caught in a trap called a “job scam.”
Students working part-time are at higher risk of becoming a target of such a scam so we have decided to create a list of things that can help you identify them.
So, if you are looking for a part-time job but are not sure whether a job is real or simply a scam, read on: this article is for you!
1. It’s too good to be true.
The first sign that something might be a job scam is if the description of the position is simply too good to be true.
Of course, there are those great businesses all millennials want to work at (like Google with its fantastic campus), but they are not that common.
So, if the potential employer says that you do not need to have great experience, that it is okay that you have no idea how to write a case study or perform any other of their requirements, and they still want to pay a whole lot of money, make sure you study the company and search for information about it online.
2. Poor grammar in the job description.
Professionals know how to compose a proper job description.
So, if you find too many grammatical errors in the writing, I wouldn’t even apply for the position: even if it is not a scam, would you want to work in an unprofessional environment like that?
3. They require money up-front
And it's usually for "recruiting consideration".
Companies will never ask you to pay during your job search.
So, if you ever get asked to pay for anything, close that chat, finish that call and blacklist that email: those are the scammers you should be staying away from.
4. An odd email address.
According to the University of Pittsburg, students should not continue communication with potential employers if their email contains “@live.com” as there are many known cases when people owning that address were scammers.
Most professionals will have a work email and use this in discussion with you.
So, bear this information in mind!
5. Email does not match the name of the company.
In the same vein, you should be wary if the email address for some reason doesn’t match the company.
Sometimes the job offer comes from a reliable company, but the email address domain does not contain the name of the company or is different from the one mentioned on the official website of the venture.
This is another red flag for you!
6. No information about the recruiter online.
Once you receive an invitation to the interview or the first response to your CV, consider checking the information about a company that showed interest in you, online.
Every company should have a website, a page on some social network or some other source their clients can learn more about them from.
If you found nothing about them there, it might be a red flag about the potential job scam.
7. No clear contact information on the website.
Another bad sign for you is the absence of contact information about the company online.
There must be a special section on their website explaining who they are and what they do. If you found no such information, do not get in touch with them.
8. Require credit card or bank details.
This is a piece of private information that no one else is supposed to know about.
Unless they are asking how they can pay you without having to get into your private bank account details, do not continue communication with these people.
9. Trust your guts.
Sometimes it is enough just to say that “it does not feel right.”
Your intuition might be right about such things, so just go with it.
Summary
As a student, you are still quite vulnerable, and many scammers might use this vulnerability for their own purposes. So, do not leave them a chance to get you into this scam. Use our tips on identifying a scam and only agree to jobs that are real and good for you!
Hopefully you haven’t been scammed before (and won’t be in the future!!!) but it is important to spread the word about these things, because people do fall into the same old traps.
Keep an eye out!
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