Don’t Become a Victim of Fake Jobs Fraud :-
(I) Too Good to Be True:-
- Good jobs are always hard to find. Remember our grandparents used to say, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is a scam. Here are some tip-offs for “fake jobs”.
- You never contacted them; they contacted you: They say they found your resume on online job portals. They either offer you a job right away or say they want to interview you. Sometimes the scammers will try to persuade you by saying that you made the cut and they are interviewing the finalists for the job.
- You get the job right away
- After a quick phone or Instant Message interview, the ‘interviewer’ immediately contacts you to offer you the job.
- Unprofessional Emails
- i.e. Capitalisation errors: ‘Anil rachamalla should be ‘Anil Rachamalla, and ‘gmail should be ‘Gmail
- Punctuation errors: Commas and periods should be followed by a space
- Grammatical errors: “Human resources have reviewed” should be “Human Resources has reviewed”
- Emails Don’t Include Telephone Contact Information, If so they don’t have a board number with an extension.
- Online Interviews via Messaging Services
- Many attempted scams will take place online using an instant messaging service like.
- Some scam emails will look like they come from real companies.
- “The scammer’s email address was jobs@bankof-america.com The original company email is jobs@bankofamerica.com”
- Search Results Don’t Add Up
- Some scammers pretend to represent real companies. You may have received a job offer from ‘Bank in America, but the real company is named Bank of America’.
- You’re Asked to Provide Confidential Information
- Some scammers ask for personal information like, Aadhar. PAN and Passport copies under the disguise of Background Check, Ensure you send to legitimate email ID otherwise you are prone to phishing attacks in feature.
- They Want You to Pay for Something
- Legitimate companies don’t ask for money. If you’re told you need to purchase software or pay refundable deposit or Service fees, beware.
(II) Sample Victim Profile:-
These are the type of people who are most likely to fall prey to fake job scams:
- Mostly from tier 2 or tier 3 cities, who come to tier 1 cities for jobs.
- Graduate from lesser known colleges or institutes
- Poor interpersonal communication skills
- 0-3 year work experience
- In their early to mid-20s
- Not good at written or spoken English
- Not very skilled at their jobs and low professional expertise
- Have applied only on job portal
(III) Top Fake Job Scams:-
- Hyderabad: January 2019, one person was held for cheating 1.04 lakh applicants.
- Ghaziabad: June 2018, Three men were arrested from Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad for cheating hundreds of job seekers over two years.
- Hyderabad: June 2018, Three men were held in Hyderabad 2 lakh each from 60 unemployed youth in three months.
(IV) How to Safeguard Yourself:-
- Don’t make personal and sensitive information visible on your social media profiles.
- Never part with money up front for background checks , admin or service fees.
- If invited to do a phone interview, make sure the interviewer phones you – (you may be at risk of a premium rate number scam).
- Don’t accept money for nothing, for ‘working from home’ scams.
- Don’t share any personal information until you’re sure it’s a genuine company.
