Job scams can happen to anyone

Layoffs in the tech industry are a fact. As a consequence, a group of IT specialists is active in the labor market. In the process of searching for new projects, IT specialists are exposed to attacks by scammers who impersonate recruiters and offer some interesting job opportunities. And because the IT industry got used to fast online recruitment processes that end up with a job offer quite quickly, the risk of fraud is even greater.

Scammers turn out to be fantastically prepared to such an extent that, apart from having a reliable profile on LinkedIn, they take the trouble to organize professional onboarding and meetings with colleagues or HR representatives. This is much more than the previous e-mails from publicly available e-mail addresses such as Gmail or Yahoo, asking for personal or financial data of the candidate, or brokering cash flows, which makes the red light come on for most of us.

Gustavo Miller, who experienced the scam, begins his story this way:

A month ago I started a (fake) new job.
I did a (fake) onboarding.
I met (fake) colleagues.

I am sharing this story to make all job seekers aware that in the new recruitment reality, which has undergone significant digitization in recent years, this may happen more and more often. These types of incidents also go beyond the IT industry and, unfortunately, it is quite difficult to verify whether we have just fallen into the trap of a scammer.

Link to Gustavo Miller’s post is available – HERE.

Monika Ciesielska
President at IMSA Search Global Partners. An experienced consultant in the recruitment of the management staff, including board members, and a leader of the recruiting team in the IT/Tech area. Enthusiast of digital transformation of HR processes. Podcaster at "Skrzydlaty HR" and "Top Leaders Club".
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