Scam Jobs

[sweetnovelist]

Don't you love it when you apply for a job, get a response fairly quickly (thus inducing some wicked amounts of excitement)... only to find out that it's a scam.

I applied for a gig on Craigslist. I sent them my cover letter and, like a dummy, forgot to send my resume. OOPS. I realized this just after I click the SEND button and confirmed this fear

Comments

[jessiegirl_ca]

Unfortunately those are MOST of the postings I see in craigslist.
My tips for trying to avoid them...
1) outrageous salary claims: this may be large ranges $30,000-60,000 or over paying for a desk job.
2) if they give you a gmail/hotmail/generic free email account google it... you'll likely find that a "local" company has a million postings all over the country.
3) lack of details. All of the legit jobs I've seen (including some from companies I've worked for in the past) spend time to write their ads and describe their position. Craigslist is FREE - even smaller companies who used to have to save money on newspaper ads being small don't anymore.

[spiritedrinoa]

In fairness to Craigslist, I will say that I know some people who got legitimate, short gigs (either one time contract jobs, or, in my husband's case, a job that got him 6 months of work

[howlingcoyote]

Spherion is a legit company.... but obviously this mail itself is a scam and the person is not from Spherion.

[spiritedrinoa]

I believe that was the OP's point? It's not at all uncommon for scammers to post as well-known companies/names in order to lend credibility. Similar to the PayPal and banking phishing emails that most of us get oh so frequently....

[pie_is_good]

Yeah, you start recognizing those scams after awhile. When I first started applying to jobs from Craiglist, it seemed like that's all the jobs were. But you start seeing the same job listing with a different email address or the same email addresses with different listings...it's annoying. I just want a job. :(

[moskevyu]

True. Only all of the places I've ever applied which required it, didn't make me fill out the credit checking paperwork until they asked for the mandatory drug test. None has ever asked me to do my own credit check.

[spiritedrinoa]

Yes, but would you provide your social security # without having met anyone in the company in person first? I certainly wouldn't, and in fact have passed on online applications for positions where the online application has required a SS# (even if I'm certain that the site is legit).

[harmonde]

I got that same email with a few details changed last week. I was so excited until I saw they wanted a copy of my credit report. I thought, "......Fuck. Scammers."