Fraudulent Job Postings Aim to Steal Your Money, Identity

​Job searchers, be wary. Fraudsters posing as recruiters and employers are contacting potential job candidates with attractive job offers in an attempt to extract Social Security numbers and other personal data.

“It often starts with a message from a person claiming to be an executive recruiter representing a big-name business,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns in an Aug. 3 blog post. “Their foot-in-the-door approach sounds plausible: ‘We saw your portfolio online and were impressed’ or ‘According to your LinkedIn profile, you have just the experience we’re looking for’ or ‘We asked others in your industry for recommendations and your name kept popping up.'” 

After a so-called interview, the scammers send a job offer followed by “on-boarding” with someone supposedly from HR who asks for sensitive information for the new hire’s W-2 form or to start direct paycheck deposits.

It’s not always the person’s personal data scammers are after; these cons also are a way to steal your money. There were 182,704 cases of job scams reported to the FTC during the second quarter of 2023 and $899 was the median loss among the 21 percent of individuals tricked out of their money during that time period.

SHRM Online collected the following news articles on this topic from trusted sources: 

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