Watch out for fake jobs on the Web

A woman who responded to an Internet job posting provided her résumé and received a response saying she seemed to be a good fit for the position.

The company that posted the advertisement asked her to send $10 to help defray the cost of a $40 background check. She was told it was part of the application process.

It sounded fishy, though, so the woman didn’t fall for it, according to the Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington County.

Good thing. After investigating it, the BBB concluded that it was a fake offer originating overseas.
Are you looking for a job via the Internet?

“It’s a safe place to look for a job,“

said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the Chicago-based outplacement consulting company. “You just have to be wary of certain types of situations as you would anywhere.

“As a job seeker, you can look through so many more jobs and post your résumé on the Internet,“ he said. “A lot of companies do post their jobs online and only online.“

So go ahead and search for that position online.

But watch out for crooks and opportunists. Fake job opportunities rank among the top three Internet scams worldwide, said Dermot Harnett, a principal analyst at security software provider Symantec.

It’s right up there with Nigerian scams and foreign lottery scams, he said. Crooks are looking to steal your identity and commit fraud, or download malicious software to your computer.
“There’s a lot of job-seeking spam out there because of the economy and people losing their jobs,“ he said.

How can you protect yourself while searching for a job online?

By: Not sending money. “You should not have to pay for a job interview or a background check,“ said Tom Gallagher, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau of Central Virginia Inc.

That’s the responsibility of the hiring company, Challenger said. It’s usually performed on the candidate that the company is most interested in.
What if you get duped into sending money?

“Most of the time, I’d say you won’t be able to get your money back,“ said Barbara Homiller, vice president of the local BBB. Online scam artists can be impossible to trace.
Researching the company that contacted you. Find out if the company really exists, Homiller said.

“You want to know a physical location,“ she said. “You want to know something about that company and have talked to them so you know there’s a job there that you’re truly being interviewed for.“

Check them out online, Challenger suggested. See what you can dig up using a search engine and by visiting the BBB or a local chamber of commerce.

Not telling your business to strangers. .  “Don’t give out a credit-card number unless you trust the person or company to whom it is being given,“ Gallagher said.

“Certainly don’t give your Social Security number and bank account numbers,“ Homiller said. “There has to be another way of communicating with these people” than online.

Learning the red-flag questions. .  It’s illegal for a prospective employer to ask your date of birth, health or financial information, Challenger said.

The company can pull your credit report, which requires telling your Social Security number, he said.

But that doesn’t happen until the end of the interview process when it offers to hire you.

By then, you will have had face-to-face interviews.

Being careful responding to blind ads. .  A blind ad contains no information about the company. You cannot even confirm its existence or make direct contact to find out if there’s a real job involved.

“Often, what a blind ad means is someone is in the job that you’re applying for,“ Challenger said.
Companies don’t want that position to go vacant until they have a new person to fill it.

If your antenna is up, don’t respond with any personal information that an identity thief could use, he said.

Contact Iris Taylor at (804) 649-6349 or .