Recently, I was flipping through the November 2005 issue of PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com when an article of interest to my job seeker clients caught my eye.
According to the author of the article, Carol A. Mangis, phishing attacks on job hunters by indentity-theft con artists are on the rise. Job hunters who have posted a resume on a web site are at particular risk. Posing as a representative of a company, the thieves contact the job hunter by email, making a phony job offer and then asking for sensitive information such as birth date and social security number on a web page set up to look like a job application or background check authorization form.
We have all been warned not to respond to the phishing emails from phonies posing as legitimate companies such as eBay or your bank, but online job offers is a new method of attack that many may not be familiar with.
To protect yourself, the article suggests a few precautions.
- Remember that most companies, even the very large ones, don't have online job application forms. If you receive a request to fill one out, it is very likely a phishing attempt.
- If you are contacted with a job offer by a company you have never heard of, do your research and make sure the company is legitimate.
- Remember that it is illegal for a company to ask for your birth date, so never give it out even if asked.
- Once you have accepted a job offer, the company will need to know your social security number. However, if you must submit it online, be certain that the form immediately and automatically encrypts it.
To these warnings, I would add that any time you receive a job offer by email asking for additional information through email or an online form, simply take five minutes to make a phone call to the company and verify the legitimacy. Those five minutes are well worth the time spent when you consider the consequences of inadvertently providing sensitive personal information to the bad guys!
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