Nowadays Internet frauds and scams have become one of the most key threats to everyone, where these frauds target and steal away victims’ important documents, money, important informations and passwords. These scammers show no mercy to their targets and scam them in a very professional way without letting the victim know that they are getting scammed or giving away all their important information to someone else.
This scammers are masterminds in there own unique way, they will always find new ways and techniques to scam people.
We all know how this Covid-19 pandemic has affected the world with people getting terminated from jobs, fresh graduates seeking to start their careers all at the same time are in a blind hunt for jobs where they are ready to accept any jobs as per their criteria without validating or giving a second thought on it.
Here’s where the aster minds take this pandemic as an opportunity for them and started their own way of scamming this job seekers through “Recruitment Process Fraudulent”. This online job scams are offering jobs for every field but are most likely to be happening through Fake Hospitality & Tourism jobs sector like hotels, restaurants, resorts, etc.
They are using
• Big brand names,
• Providing attractive salary,
• Imposeters of Visa Officers providing their fake contact details,
• Providing you bonus offers,
Thereafter they will ask for the visa fees and promise you that the cost will be refunded after the cost reports are submitted through mail. And that’s where you will get scammed if you fall into the trap and pay the visa fees. I will explain more about how it works.
Nowadays, people are becoming smarter and so are scammers. Sometimes, it’s very hard to find whether the job is a legitimate or a fake one. Hoping to find better opportunities some people end up losing their hard earned money and become a victim of “Identity Theft”. Where the scammers can do anything with your identity, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. We will go through every step to determine a job scam.
For most scammers, online job portals are a popular haunt to find prey. Here’s how they proceed:
1. Applicant profiles accessed from job recruitment sites.
2. Mass mailers sent to potential candidates.
3. Fraudsters pose as job consultants, set up fake websites, temporary ‘offices’.
4. Candidates are asked to deposit registration fees via wallet or bank transfers.
5. Online or telephonic interviews are conducted(May not apply in all the process)
6. Fake appointment letters are offered.
You’ve submitted your CV on a Job Portal and very soon an employer comes up saying, he/she is interested in your profile and wants to offer you a position. But where is the catch? They haven’t invited you to an interview and I have seen a company(fake employer) email saying that first, you have to fill and send the recruitment process documents and then you will get an offer letter, thereafter you will have to connect with the visa officer again and you have to pay for the visa. How does the employer know that you’ll clear all these stages? I just wonder. They will promise to refund the money back but to be honest, it never happens, once you are parted with your money then it’s gone. If you have to pay any amount to anyone before you get the job or after an interview then there is a red flag, beware it’s probably a scam. No employer wanted to get money from their perspective candidates and no legit job will ask you to pay money. Give some time in doing a search for the Job portal and find if it is legit or a fake.
Fake job rackets have become a booming industry, thanks to shrinking jobs in private as well as public sector and hordes of students passing out of low-quality professional colleges. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India’s unemployment rate in April 2019 shot up to 7.6%, the highest since October 2016, it increased more upto 9.6% in December 2020. Combined with easy accessibility of the Internet, this has come as a boon for job scammers, who are offering non-existent jobs to desperate youth. “Students fresh out of college, from one of the thousands of engineering colleges in small towns, are easily trapped. Their parents have invested on them and now want the kids to earn big money, especially through foreign jobs. If you take the example of India and the Philippines, 10 recent graduates 4 of them wanted to go overseas for their career. And most of the scams happen in getting an overseas job.
First, you always wanted to go abroad, second, a good salary, incentives and bonuses, third work-life balance and they are giving you the same, to dream (Yes I’m right, a dream). But, if you carefully read all of the mail’s and offer letter you will start finding it unrealistic, with tons of grammatical errors, promises, and more promises and if the job offer is too promising then it’s probably a scam. Little wonder then that embassies, companies and job portals have started putting up advisories on their websites to warn the applicants. Groups such as Tata Consultancy Services, Shell and Monster.com have also put up warnings on their sites. If you are also looking for jobs, here’s how to avoid being duped by scammers.
PHISHING & MAILING
This is probably the easiest way for racketeers to find victims en masse . “By posing as freelance job consultants, they scour multiple job portals like Monster, Naukri, TimesJobs and Shine to get access to their databases,”. They then send mass mailers and, even if they dupe 5% of job-seekers, they make a lot of money. The mails typically ask for a security deposit, interview fee or other charges, a prerequisite for scheduling an interview. While some fraudsters disappear as soon as they get the money, others go so far as to conduct a quick online or telephonic interview before allotting a fake appointment letter.
Email Scams( Jobs being Offered with Unprofessional Email)
“Hi, Adam we have found your CV on XYZ.com and we are glad to offer you a position in our company as a …” Wow, without applying for a job, even without giving an interview, you have been offered a position. What else do you want? The person who has sent you an email may be is from your dream company. But, stop!!!! Have you tried to read that email address? Is it a Gmail or a Yahoo or any of the free email account? Do you know every business organization has its personal email address with the same domain name as the company has? If you don’t know about a domain name, let me just give you a short example.
If the company name is Hilton and if you google about Hilton, then you can find the hotel website which is Hilton.com (this is domain name) and the people who are from the hotel they will have an email address associated with the domain name.
FACEBOOK JOB SCAM
Being one of the best social networking platforms, Facebook has too many scammers who are ripping innocent and desperate job seekers. I am not going to talk about Angel Priya (Even Zuckerberg was amazed that why didn’t he met any Angel Priya on his visit to India). There are hundreds of thousands of groups and pages about career, claiming local and international career opportunities. But they are just a waste of time.
LINKEDIN SCAMS
If you’re a regular LinkedIn user then you might have seen posts like ‘Hiring open positions’ creating a Hotel Professionals WhatsApp on the phone number or email address with no official domain. For someone, it might not be a scam, but for me, it’s a scam. How can you imagine that a group of random contact is going to help you? I am not saying this because I don’t want to build networks, Yes I definitely wanted that but, I have experienced being in those traps, So I would never recommend being in such a time waster thing. On doing some research on this fraud scams I found out some more information on some really big scams where targeted victims were students and freshly Graduates.
Hiring scams:- Ghaziabad scam – In June 2018, three men were arrested from Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad for cheating hundreds of job seekers over two years. Amount: Rs 3.5 crore Hyderabad scam:- In June 2018, three men were held in Hyderabad for extracting Rs 2 lakh each from 60 unemployed youth in three months, Amount: Rs 1.2 crore. I hope this will give you an idea how much scam they have done with needy people. Avoid being scammed, Here is the checklist you should follow to check proof your job selection process. Go to authentic, official websites: Most companies advertise new job positions on their official websites. So, instead of replying to dubious mails, go to the career page of the company and apply directly on the site. In case of online job portals, make sure you are routing your resumes via the original sites, not responding to a link provided in a mail.
Post CVs with specific job positions: While posting your resume on job portals, make sure that the CV is written for the specific post you want. Also, any mail you get in response should offer you the particular post you have applied for. Vague, generic designations are an indication of a fake offer. Never pay for securing a job: No employer seeks any fee from a job-seeker at any stage of the hiring process. So beware of companies or individuals, who are seeking fees or charges for security deposit, registration or document verification. This can be through bank instruments or cash in an individual’s name, or through a bank transfer. Look for flaws in mail/letter: A good exercise to ward off scammers who approach you through mails is to scan the letter minutely . Beware if the mail is from a free e-mail address, not the company e-mail. Also check for the format of the letter, spelling mistakes, poor syntax or wrong spacing. Another indicator is the name and sign of the person sending you the mail, as well as the company address and contact details.
Validate mail by calling firms: If you have any doubts about the offer or appointment letter, call up the company on its registered landline number. Check if the person who has mailed you exists, and if the firm has a vacancy for the post or job you have applied for. Conduct proper research about the company before applying for the job. Be cautious about jobs that seem too good to be true: If you are being offered a 70-80% increment, or a remuneration that is not in line with the market trends, or with your rank and experience, it is most definitely a fake job. Another indicator is that you are being handed an offer letter without a formal interview. Ensure that you are called for a personal, face-to-face interview, preferably at the registered company address.
Whatever the way will be, these bogus agencies or people would like to get your money or your identity and after being successful maybe you can’t see or contact them later. Irrespective of their modus operandi, these agencies have the same motto to promise the candidate, get your confidential data and to get their hands on your cash. But does this mean you cannot find a genuine job or an internship.
Obviously, You Can!
Fake job rackets have become a booming industry, thanks to shrinking jobs in the private as well as public sector and hordes of students passing out of low-quality professional colleges. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India’s unemployment rate in April 2019 shot up to 7.6%, the highest since October 2016.