Have you come across any ads lately looking to hire people at salaries that look a little too good to be true? If your gut says stay away, it’s probably best that you trust it.
The FBI and other independent cybersecurity firms are warning that scammers are dangling exorbitant salaries in front of people looking for work for the sole purpose of stealing their identities.
“These fraudsters, they’re like a virus. They continue to mutate,” Haywood Talcove told ProPublica. Talcove is the chief executive of the government division of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a private firm contracted by state and federal agencies to battle identity theft, and he says this particular scam is starting to grow legs.
Talcove said LexisNexis logged around 2,900 ads in March on social media sites boasting extremely high salaries for jobs like “airport shuttle driver,” but that the number has already ballooned to over 36,000 in the past month.
And that was just the total in the sampling that LexisNexis monitored. Talcove said the actual total is much larger.
Of course, it’s no surprise that criminals would target those seeking employment right now, with large numbers of Americans leaving their jobs and still others laid off, making the job market a fertile breeding ground for dishonesty.
Authorities have long battled fraudsters looking to run insurance scams, and that includes unemployment insurance, but recent crackdowns and the addition of two-factor authentication have made that a much more difficult task. Now those who apply for unemployment assistance have to verify who they are using their phones.
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The greater degree of difficulty has necessitated that criminals create new ways around the fail-safes. That includes posing as legitimate companies in order to lure victims in with the promise of new employment with high salaries. They can even reference a victim’s own resumé if they pose as a fake company and download it from employment sites like LinkedIn or Indeed.
Once the resumé is procured, it can be shared on underground websites frequented by cybercriminals.
There are signs to look for – a misspelled company name in a web address or a lack of distinguishing characteristics like location.
Keep in mind this is not a new scam. It’s simply one that is gaining traction because of the current influx of jobseekers. And while the sites that are legitimately working to find you work are doing their due diligence and taking down false ads, it is always important that every person protect their own information, especially when it comes to unsolicited requests for that information.
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