A new report published Tuesday found that 1 in 3 people seeking employment over the past two years have fallen victim to a scam and applied to a fake job posting.
Conducted by password security and internet safety website Password Managers, nearly 700 people were surveyed who have recently applied for a job, and of those, 1 in 3 recent job seekers have been tricked into applying for a fake job scam.
The way the scam works is this, an individual or sophisticated group of scammers pose as a legitimate employer or recruitment agency by offering false job opportunities to unsuspecting job seekers. Once the application has been filled out, the scammers have the applicant’s personal information, including their social security card; making it easy to steal one’s identity or open new credit cards in their name.
According to the report, fake job scams have nearly tripled since the start of the pandemic, when most communication moved online. The report found that since then, the con has become so elaborate, that many scammers will even conduct fake job interviews over Zoom to fool applicants into believing they are applying to a legitimate job.
Of the people surveyed, 15% had personal information stolen, and 9% had money stolen by scammers.
Craigslist topped the list as the biggest platform for fake job postings, and Amazon as the top company that scammers use as well.
