I have been warning you about job scams for twelve years.  These scams appear in many platforms including social media, emails, and even on legitimate online employment websites. In a recent version of the job scam, scammers are texting people posing as recruiters for a company with which you may be familiar offering you full or part time employment.  In the text message the scammers asks for personal or financial information or to click on a link.   In order to be hired, you need to provide your Social Security number which is not particularly unusual since you would have to provide it to any legitimate employer.  However, being required to provide it after one initial contact is certainly unusual.

There is no job and if you provide your Social Security number or other information, it will be used to make you a victim of identity theft.

In some instances the scammers will copy outdated online job postings of legitimate companies, but include the scammers contact information.  Once you contact them, the scammers request your Social Security number or in other instances request your bank account information in order to send you an advance payment, when in reality the scammers merely want to gain access to your bank account.

TIPS

Being offered a job for which you didn’t apply for is like the lottery scam where you are told that you have won a lottery that you never entered. They are scams.  If you have any thought that the offer may be legitimate, merely contact the company  through its real website or phone number which you can find online.  Don’t click on the link in the text message or call the number provided in the text.

If you are looking for work a good place to start is with your state’s job bank.  Here is a link that you can use to find the job bank for your state. https://www.careeronestop.org/jobsearch/findjobs/state-job-banks.aspx

you also may want to block text messages from the scammer from contacting you in the future.  Here is a link that lets you know how to block unwanted text messages. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-report-spam-text-messages#what_to_do

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