Searching for a job is much easier today with all of the resources of the Internet, however, unfortunately, it is also easier for scammers to search for victims posing as employment recruiters using the resources of the Internet.  The phony recruiters often reach out to people on social media such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  Many people provide personal information to these scammers who then use that information to make the job seeker a victim of identity theft.  Often the scammers will copy the logo of legitimate companies so that their emails may look legitimate.

TIPS

As I always say, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”  You can never be sure when you receive an email, text message or communication by way of social media who is really contacting you.  For this reason, you should never provide personal information to a recruiter unless you have absolutely confirmed they are legitimate.  You can do this by contacting the HR department of the real company they may only be pretending to represent.   Real job postings can also be found on the websites of legitimate companies so if someone claims to be recruiting for a company that does not list such a job as being offered by the company on its website, you can expect that the recruiter is a scammer or identity thief.