[ad_1]
Just when consumers seem to have latched onto one particular online scam or phishing expedition — think of the ubiquitous Nigerian prince email scam that first made the rounds in the 1990s — along comes a new one. By now, the list seems endless: online dating scams, bank and credit card scams, scammers posing as charities, social media quizzes designed to collect personal information, and lottery scams. Now you can add to the list another one that has grown significantly since the start of the pandemic: employment fraud.
In this type of scam, fraudsters pose as an employer’s recruiting, interviewing and employment team, create fake job offers and target job seekers using fake websites or fake email addresses. They then post the fraudulent job opportunities at the company they are pretending to be in order to obtain confidential personal and financial information from the unsuspecting job applicant.
Some scammers go so far as to pose as former employees of a company, communicate with and interview candidates, and even make job offers on behalf of the company. Employers have even reported individuals showing up to their induction meetings when a job application had never been opened. Sometimes scammers demand payments as part of their fake recruitment process.
Like other online scams that seek to separate people from their personal information and money, employment fraud is not a victimless crime, and employers can face reputational damage if they do not take steps to minimize the risk of performance, or to respond promptly if recruitment fraud occurs.
Taking action against fraudsters
So what should you do if fraudsters steal your company’s identity as part of an employment scam? First, take immediate action to remove the fake domains and report the fraudulent domains to the relevant registrars. In some circumstances, employers may also consider filing a complaint under the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) to gain access to the domain for your company. Second, we recommend that you post a fraud alert on your website to inform people about the recruitment fraud incident and provide them with information about your recruitment process so that they can avoid becoming a victim of fraudulent activity .
To proactively combat these scams, employers should seriously consider updating their job postings, social media and websites to provide specific information about their recruitment process. For example, employers must identify authentic email addresses that will be used by the employer for recruiting purposes, inform applicants that they are not using text messages for recruiting, and identify specific web page(s) as containing authentic information about the company’s job postings. In addition, employers should inform job applicants that the employer will never ask for a financial commitment from the applicant as part of the recruitment process and that all interviews will be conducted in person or via video conference invitations from official company emails.
[ad_2]
Source link