As If job hunting in a recession wasn't tough enough. Information Week reports that identity thieves are now posting fake employment ads to steal vital data from job hunters. Fake job ads, apparently, have more than quadrupled in the past three years, many aspiring to identity theft, or so says the Association for Payment Clearing Services, a financial trade group in the U.K.
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) urges job hunters to be cautious about divulging personal information to prospective employers. This may be good advice, but it presents a problem: How do you answer a employment ad without giving out your vital details?
ITRC offers these tips:
Hat-tip: TechAmerica
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) urges job hunters to be cautious about divulging personal information to prospective employers. This may be good advice, but it presents a problem: How do you answer a employment ad without giving out your vital details?
ITRC offers these tips:
- Before sending out résumés or CVs, make sure your computer's security software is deployed and up-to-date. Job-hunters, because they are eager for responses, are often inviting targets for scammers and phishers.
- Do not put your social security number on your CV or résumé, or give it to an employer prospect until you have a serious offer.
- Set up a separate e-mail account for your job search, which can limit the threats from phishing and spam sent to your regular e-mail address. If this alternative e-mail address is compromised -- hijacked by a spammer, for example -- it will not affect your primary e-mail service.
- Do some research on companies placing employment ads. One place to turn is the Better Business Bureau. Another source is the consumer protection authorities in the state where the company is located. Having an impressive Web site these days doesn't mean much, since posting a site takes little financial investment or technical skill.
- Avoid Web site registrations that require you to provide sensitive personal data, such as Social Security Number, home address, or driver's license number. Most legitimate sites don't ask for such sensitive data (except for credit card numbers of course, at merchant sites) and those that do will make that sensitive data optional.
- Double-check on the bona fides of the contact at a company. Be wary, for example, when the contact's e-mail address is not from the company's Internet domain. If someone is not employed by the prospective employer, find out the person's relationship with that company. It is not uncommon for companies to hire headhunters or contract recruiters, but legitimate outside recruiters will not mind answering that question.
Hat-tip: TechAmerica
