The internet is a great place to search for a job and posting your resume online with one of the many online employment services can be a great way to contact many prospective employers.  However it is also a very effective way to contact scammers.  Scammers will pose as job recruiters for legitimate companies and contact you to tell you that they are impressed by your resume, but that they need to do further investigation into you before they can offer you a job.  In order to do that, they tell you, they need your Social Security number and other personal identifying information.  Unfortunately, once a scammer has that information, it is a short trip to your becoming a victim of identity theft.

Another scam comes when you list your resume with a legitimate online employment company, but list too much information in your resume such that scammers posing as potential employers gain access to your resume and use the information in your resume to make you a victim of identity theft.

TIP

Never provide your Social Security number or other personal identifying information to a job recruiter until you have met with him or her personally in a real office.  By meeting in person, you can confirm that the company is real.  You should also check out any company that you have questions about with the FTC, the Better Business Bureau and your local state attorney general.

Also never include information in an online resume that turn you into a victim of identity theft.  Do not include your Social Security number, your birth date, your home address or your telephone number.  In fact, you should not even include your full name.  Use just your first initial and last name.