Employment scams surged last year, as criminals leveraged\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0to steal money and personal information from unsuspecting job seekers, experts said.<\/p>\n
Consumer reports of\u00a0job scams\u00a0jumped 118% in 2023 from the prior year, according to a\u00a0recent report\u00a0by the Identity Theft Resource Center.<\/p>\n
Thieves generally pose as recruiters and post fake job listings to entice applicants, then steal valuable information during the \u201cinterview\u201d process.<\/p>\n
Often, they put these phony listings on reputable websites like LinkedIn and other job search platforms, ITRC said, making it tough to disentangle truth from fiction.<\/p>\n
A chief danger is divulging information about financial accounts or sensitive personal data (like a Social Security number) that criminals can then use to steal a job seeker\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n
Consumers\u00a0reported losing\u00a0$367 million to job and business opportunity scams in 2022, up 76% year over year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.<\/p>\n
The typical victim lost a \u201cwhopping\u201d $2,000, the FTC said.<\/p>\n
Job scams aren\u2019t the most prevalent fraud: They accounted for only 9% of total identity scams in 2023, second to\u00a0Google Voice scams, which totaled 60%, ITRC said. (Google Voice scams trick people into sharing a Google verification code, which scammers can use for nefarious ends. They often target people on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.)<\/p>\n
However, employment scams are an \u201cemerging\u201d threat, said ITRC president and CEO Eva Velasquez.<\/p>\n
\u201cJob scams have been around since there were jobs,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201d[But] they\u2019ll continue to grow because of a number of external factors that are occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI advancements are one of those factors: They allow scammers to generate job listings and recruitment messages that look and feel more legitimate, experts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI tools help refine the \u2018pitch\u2019 to make it more believable as well as compensate for cultural and grammar differences in language usage,\u201d according to the ITRC report.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, the\u00a0rise of remote work\u00a0during the pandemic era have made workers and job seekers more comfortable with digital-only transactions, Velasquez said.<\/p>\n
Job seekers may never see a physical person during a phony hiring or interview process: They may interact with a supposed recruiter only via text or WhatsApp message, Velasquez said, which amounts to a \u201cbig red flag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent college grads, immigrants or other people new to the U.S. workforce may think such digital-only hiring normal, especially for fully remote jobs, she said. But hiring generally doesn\u2019t work this way, she added.<\/p>\n
Con artists will \u201cpush you for money\u201d during the hiring process, the FTC said.<\/p>\n
They may send an invoice for advance payment of on-the-job equipment (like a computer ) or job training. They promise to reimburse you, but won\u2019t, according to the federal agency.<\/p>\n
Scammers may also ask for your personal information \u2014 like a driver\u2019s license, Social Security number or bank account details \u2014 upfront in order to fill out \u201cemployment paperwork,\u201d the FTC said.<\/p>\n
\u201cScammers will promise you a great job, but what they really want is your money and your personal information,\u201d New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez said in a\u00a0consumer alert\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n
Job seekers should not expect to have to hand over personal information until after they\u2019ve received and accepted a job offer, Velasquez said. (While this is a good screen for legitimacy, it may not provide a safety guarantee in all cases, she said.)<\/p>\n
Ultimately, \u201cthere\u2019s no sure-fire way to detect\u201d job opportunity scams,\u00a0according\u00a0to the FTC.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you should know and how you can better protect yourself, according to Velasquez and the FTC:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t have a false sense of security on well-known job search platforms.<\/p>\n
Independently verify the company exists and is hiring. Don\u2019t accept a job offer until you\u2019ve done your own research.<\/p>\n
Be wary if you didn\u2019t initiate contact with a prospective employer or recruiter. Instead, reach out to the company directly using contact information you know is legit.<\/p>\n
Only limited personal information is generally required during the application process: name, phone number, job and education history, and perhaps email and home address, Velasquez said.<\/p>\n
Digital-only interactions are a red flag. However, phone calls are also not a guarantee of security.<\/p>\n
Honest employers won\u2019t send you a check to buy supplies or anything else, then ask you to send back the leftover money. This is a fake check scam.<\/p>\n
Be wary of something that sounds too good to be true. For example, a job ad for 100% remote work that requires few skills and a huge salary \u201cis not realistic,\u201d Velasquez said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Employment scams surged last year, as criminals leveraged\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0to steal money and personal information from unsuspecting job seekers, experts said. Consumer reports of\u00a0job scams\u00a0jumped 118% in 2023 from the prior year, according to a\u00a0recent report\u00a0by the Identity Theft Resource Center. Thieves generally pose as recruiters and post fake job listings to entice applicants, then steal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}