The Better Business Bureau Serving Alaska, Oregon and Western Washington warns job-seekers to beware of misleading online job postings and employment arrangements aimed at stealing money and identities. Online employment scams generally target the increasing population of workers wanting to work from home, but also may affect those looking for second jobs and young people looking for part-time employment.
Complaints to the BBB span dozens of sites, including employment advertisements listed on well-known, legitimate job sites such as Monster, CareerBuilder and Yahoo Hot Jobs.
"Job scams prey on a victim's willingness to trust an employer who is offering high-paying jobs to dupe workers into revealing personal information, such as Social Security or bank account numbers," said Robert Andrew, BBB president and CEO. "In most cases, instead of getting paid, the job seeker loses money. And in some cases, instead of getting hired, the job seeker loses his or her iden-tity."
No profession or position appears to be immune. A common denominator in all online job scams is the employer's lack of interest in wanting to meet a prospective employee and conduct an interview. Most trustworthy businesses want to meet prospective employees face-to-face, discuss their experience and qualifications, check references - and only then, make a job offer.
Job seekers should refuse any employment opportunities that involve the following:
* Using your personal bank account: Never agree to deposit checks or money orders or to have money wired into your bank account, for any reason. Do not forward money from your account to another account, even if you are promised reimbursement. The checks or money orders will be counterfeit, and the wire transfers will eventually be rescinded.
* Paying money out of your pocket: You should not have to pay a fee to learn the details of a job, secure job-placement assistance, obtain a "background" or "identity" screening or accept an employment offer.
* Re-shipping products: Stolen credit cards are typically involved with employment scams. Victims spend their own money to re-ship products and are "reimbursed" with counterfeit checks or money orders.
* Divulging private information: Legitimate businesses don't ask prospective employees to provide their birthdate, Social Security number or a copy of their driver's license or passport.
* Cross-border action: Offers from entities located outside the United States and Canada are typically suspect. Although there are BBBs across the U.S. and Canada to help investigate businesses in North America, it is much harder to develop information on businesses located in other countries.
To further guard against identity theft, the BBB advises job hunters to refrain from including their Social Security Numbers, birth dates or college graduation dates in résumés that are posted online. Consider posting your résumé anonymously and providing an e-mail address as your primary contact rather than your home address or phone number.
Job seekers are urged to check out all prospective employers, job recruiters, placement firms and other employment opportunities with the BBB (www.thebbb.org) to find out if the business is legitimate and can be trusted.
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