As if looking for a job isn't challenging enough, today you must watch out for fake job postings online. Whether you’ve been out of the military for some time and are looking to make a career change or this will be your first civilian job, knowing how to spot a fake job posting is vital today. As more people seek remote, work-from-home jobs, the chances of being scammed by an illegitimate posting have increased.
In the past, you interviewed for a job in a brick-and-mortar building with offices and a reception desk. Today, you may be recruited, interviewed and hired all behind a computer screen. Here’s what to look out for before proceeding too far with a job posting:
1. Does the Job Posting Disclose an Actual Company Name?
Sometimes online postings aren’t real but are instead used to entice candidates to submit personal information, which is later sold to companies seeking to help job seekers. Initially you may deal with a recruiter who can’t disclose the company name, but as soon as you’re asked for anything more than a resume and email, ask to know the company name.
2. Do You Know Someone Who Works at That Company?
If it’s a very large, notable company, look through your network to see who works there. If the job doesn’t appear on the company “Careers” page, confirm with them whether any internal job posting sites show the position you’re applying for.
3. Is a Recruiter’s Name Attached, and Can You Confirm that It’s a Real Person?
LinkedIn may have verified the recruiter and company with a small blue check mark. Beyond that, look at the recruiter’s profile to ensure they work at the company they claim to.
4. Are They Asking You to Send Money or Share Personal Information?
To apply, are you being asked to provide your Social Security number or banking information? Until you receive a job offer or the company requires you to do a background check (well into the process), do not disclose personally identifying information. No job application will ever require you to send money or banking information.
5. Are They Asking You to Communicate Through an Unusual Channel?
Is the person communicating with you asking you to use an unusual channel, such as What’sApp or Signal? While those channels are popular for some communications, a recruiter shouldn’t need to use them to message you. Legitimate companies use email, company websites or sometimes even LinkedIn to communicate with candidates.
6. Are the Punctuation, Formatting and Grammar Professional?
Typos, formatting mistakes and obvious grammar errors are signals that the message is not generated by a human being or at least not one associated with a valid company.
7. Check Their Legitimacy on an AI Tool or Google
Use Chat GPT or Grok to assess the legitimacy of the offer, the company, or the communication you received. While not failproof, if you ask the AI tool to scour news, hacking trends, Glassdoor and other online sites, you can see if others have received similar messages that turned out not to be real, and get good data.
8. Will They Interview You Prior to a Job Offer?
Allowing you to speak with a real person and ask questions is important to ensuring you’re dealing with a legitimate company and a legitimate job. Not permitting this is a red flag.
9. Is the Job Offer Reasonable Given Your Skills and the Requirements?
Check with a site such as Salary.com to ensure you’re not being promised an exorbitant salary for a job that isn’t valid.
10. Is the Person Emailing you from a Legitimate Email Account?
Recruiters won’t use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo.com to recruit candidates. Even if their email seems legitimate, check carefully. If Dan@GOOGLE.com is written as Dan@G00GLE.com, you can believe the URL isn’t real.
It’s unfortunate that today job searchers must be careful about responding to inbound inquiries from recruiters and nervous about applying to jobs online. Whenever possible, apply to open positions using the company website, not a third-party application, to ensure the position is tied to the company. Even then, it’s not a guarantee the company is hiring right now (they could be testing the market), but it’s safer than responding to fake job ads on the internet.
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