Job scammers are wily, even using AI to con people into falling for their fake job postings on websites such as LinkedIn. Here’s how to avoid them.
Scammers prey on the vulnerable and even jobseekers are fair game. According to Dr Zulfikar Ramzan, like a lot of us, scammers have embraced AI for their work – making them a lot more efficient at what they do.
They use ChatGPT to generate convincing job descriptions and to create realistic profiles on job-sharing sites, said Ramzan. He is the chief scientist and EVP of product and development at Aura, a digital safety platform that uses AI to protect people against scams and identity theft. Lately, he has noticed a boom in scams – all thanks, or no thanks, to AI.
“AI can be used to generate convincing job descriptions that appear legitimate and enticing to job seekers. Scammers use AI-powered tools to create fake job postings tailored to specific industries, roles and locations,” he told us.
What’s more, “AI can assist scammers in creating fake profiles on job platforms and professional networking sites, mimicking real individuals or companies. This impersonation tactic aims to establish credibility and trust with job seekers.”
Money-laundering and deception
Ramzan explained that job scammers pour their energies into reeling people in “by fabricating job postings with desirable benefits such as simple tasks with a salary too high to match and cushy benefits that don’t exist”.
The really daring scammers might deceive candidates into purchasing equipment like monitors or keyboards for alleged training purposes, he said. “To enhance the deception, scammers may assign tasks to candidates that seem legitimate but are actually part of a money laundering scheme.”
Do your due diligence
Under no circumstances should you ever share very personal information such as bank details or social security numbers with recruiters – the legitimate ones won’t ask you for this anyway. It’s a red flag when they start to get very personal, so be warned.
If you have been offered an interview – even if you’re sure the job offer is real – do your due diligence and check the recruiter out online. It’s not being a stalker, it’s vetting people for your own peace of mind.
“Search for them on LinkedIn, Google and the company’s website if accessible. If you can’t find evidence of the company’s legitimacy or credibility, it’s best to steer clear,” said Ramzan.
“Refer to reputable job listings and professional networking platforms such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn. If there are no employee reviews or any presence at all on Glassdoor, it’s likely the job opportunity isn’t genuine. Glassdoor features reviews written by employees, so pay heed to negative or absent reviews.”
A lot of us know by now to ignore an offer that’s too good to be true – especially if it is unsolicited and comes to you via a messaging service in the early hours.
The third-party problem
But how can you avoid having your data taken by nefarious people? Most job applications these days are done online so you have to trust that the business to which you are giving your CV – that contains your contact details and other information – has your security in mind.
Unfortunately, you can’t control a whole lot about what happens to your data once it is in the hands of third parties, but you can control who you give it to in the first place – as Ramzan pointed out.
Given that a lot of scams seem to originate from shadowy operators scraping data handed to third parties through hiring websites, we decided to ask LinkedIn for some advice on how to dodge scammers.
“When you apply for a job, you expect it to be real and trustworthy. We use technology and teams of experts to find and remove unsafe jobs and those that don’t meet our standards,” said a LinkedIn spokesperson.
“Our defences catch and block 99.6pc of detected spam and scams and 99.7pc of fake accounts before our members report them.
“We also want to give you the tools including profile and job verification options and tips to stay safe while you job search, so that when the right job comes along, you can feel confident accepting it.”
The company’s main advice for jobseekers on its platform is to look for verification badges on a member’s profile. If someone offers you a job via LinkedIn, check their verification credentials to see if they are verified at least one element of their profile – such as where they work, where they studied or their identity. You can click their verification badge in their profile to see what elements they have verified.
Another way of sussing out a job is by looking for verification on the posting. LinkedIn has integrated verification directly into job posts, so when you see a verification badge on a job post, it means that there is information about the company that has been confirmed by LinkedIn, or information about the job poster that has been confirmed by the job poster through LinkedIn.
While it’s good to see job sites take measures to protect users, none of these really address the third-party issue. It begs the question: do job sites even know the types of people that can get access to user data via leeches that comb third-party websites? What kind of tools are these data leeches employing to slip under the radar?
One thing’s for certain: you can’t trust anyone.
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