In the contemporary world of online and social media marketing, job seekers have also shifted their attention to online platforms for job search. Job seekers have been reported to spend much of their time searching and applying for jobs in online platforms. This has, however, not come without disadvantages too. Some often fall victim of online scams where the scammers request for their personal contact information or money in exchange for false leads.
Have you ever found yourself in such a situation? Have you ever wondered whether a particular job posting is genuine of a scam? Well, it’s true that
sometimes it’s hard to tell the authenticity of an online job posting. When one falls victim of online fraud, it can be disastrous to their confidentiality and information security. That’s why you need to be smart and savvy regarding giving out personal information or money online. Below we provide a couple of tip-offs that would help you differentiate fake job offers from scam postings.
Ensure you verify job postings before applying
Do not become a victim of job scams. Always verify the authenticity of a job listing before making any application. Often, job scams use names of real companies to advertise their scam. When you find a job posting on the standard search engines about a particular company, it is advisable to visit the main career page of the company and confirm from their own website’s job postings to ascertain that the job actually exists. If it doesn’t exist, it might be a scam. If no such company name exists at all, don’t value the posting’s credibility and do not apply for that job.
Always know the most common job scams
Normally, the most common job scams focus on some specific job types; data entry, shipping management, forms processing, money movement, and pyramid sales schemes. Some seem to offer a lot of money for every minute jobs since they only aim at collecting information from you. Always stay abreast with the common scams when applying for jobs to avoid falling into such traps.
Always trust your guts
To stay away from job scammers, it is advisable to always trust your gut. If something sounds too good to be true, then definitely it is. Job scammers often promise crazy offers since they believe job seekers are desperate. If the pay rate being offered doesn’t match the value for money for the particular job, consider it a red flag.
Learn to identify Job scammers
Have you ever received any call from a person purporting to offer you a job you never applied for? Then that was probably a scam. Ordinarily, reputable recruiters don’t just contact job seekers who never applied for jobs to offer them jobs. Such behavior is evident in scammers who tend to lure you into providing money for your confidential information.