Spring Break
Watch out for scams with online job sites
David Thill / Senior Reporter
Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: News
Necessity is the mother of invention, so the saying goes.
However, one would have to assume the originator of the saying was not referring to Internet scams and employment shams.
Though, given the current state of the economy, job opportunities seem to be coming at something of a premium.
In this digital age, some have found ways to use an inventive route to prey on others' need for a job, such as the need a college student preparing for graduation may feel. And therein may lie the problem.
Recently, Career Services sent an e-mail to Eastern students warning of fake job offers and scam companies attempting to use Eastern's online job recruiting service to prey on those college students' need for employment.
Linda Moore, director of Career Services, said students should be wary when receiving job offers from companies that appear "too good to be true."
"Really, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Moore said. "The types of offers that say you can work four hours a day and make $100,000 a year."
When applying for jobs online or looking into a potential offer, students should be aware of "red flags" or signs that the company may be out to scam them, she said.
"When you go to the Web site, if the company name doesn't match the name on the Web site, that's a red flag," Moor said. "If the site talks about payment without actually saying when they really do, that is a huge red flag."
Moore said employees at Career Services are constantly on the lookout for such scam businesses in order to stop them before they get to Eastern's Web site.
One reference point is snopes.com, Moore said, where many people go to share information about potentially dangerous scams or ways to avoid scams that have already been perpetrated.
From 2005 to 2007, 23.7 percent of all people tricked by Internet fraud were between the ages of 20 and 29, according to consumerfraudreporting.org.
These companies are often trying to get free labor out of people or even steal their identity, said Moore.
"It's pretty concrete when you go to (snopes.com) and find hundreds of testimonials about a particular company that misled them."
Sometimes, these suspicious companies will offer a job to someone while asking for a "small fee" in order to send them an application. And with that, the company has a person's money and there is no job to be found.
"Companies like that want to hook you in," Moore said.
The problem is that certain job-posting sites, such as monster.com, often sell people's information to market research companies since the site has no other form of revenue stream.
One key item to keep in mind when filling out a personal profile on such sites is to never give up more information than necessary.
"Anytime you put information on the Internet, people can always track that information back," Moore said.
While posting resumes offers little threat to personal security, one should always avoid revealing any information about their birth date, phone number, sex and race, she said.
The best way to avoid becoming the victim of such scams is to be aware, "do your homework and look into companies first."
David Thill can be reached at 581-7942 or at dmthill@eiu.edu.
However, one would have to assume the originator of the saying was not referring to Internet scams and employment shams.
Though, given the current state of the economy, job opportunities seem to be coming at something of a premium.
In this digital age, some have found ways to use an inventive route to prey on others' need for a job, such as the need a college student preparing for graduation may feel. And therein may lie the problem.
Recently, Career Services sent an e-mail to Eastern students warning of fake job offers and scam companies attempting to use Eastern's online job recruiting service to prey on those college students' need for employment.
Linda Moore, director of Career Services, said students should be wary when receiving job offers from companies that appear "too good to be true."
"Really, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Moore said. "The types of offers that say you can work four hours a day and make $100,000 a year."
When applying for jobs online or looking into a potential offer, students should be aware of "red flags" or signs that the company may be out to scam them, she said.
"When you go to the Web site, if the company name doesn't match the name on the Web site, that's a red flag," Moor said. "If the site talks about payment without actually saying when they really do, that is a huge red flag."
Moore said employees at Career Services are constantly on the lookout for such scam businesses in order to stop them before they get to Eastern's Web site.
One reference point is snopes.com, Moore said, where many people go to share information about potentially dangerous scams or ways to avoid scams that have already been perpetrated.
From 2005 to 2007, 23.7 percent of all people tricked by Internet fraud were between the ages of 20 and 29, according to consumerfraudreporting.org.
These companies are often trying to get free labor out of people or even steal their identity, said Moore.
"It's pretty concrete when you go to (snopes.com) and find hundreds of testimonials about a particular company that misled them."
Sometimes, these suspicious companies will offer a job to someone while asking for a "small fee" in order to send them an application. And with that, the company has a person's money and there is no job to be found.
"Companies like that want to hook you in," Moore said.
The problem is that certain job-posting sites, such as monster.com, often sell people's information to market research companies since the site has no other form of revenue stream.
One key item to keep in mind when filling out a personal profile on such sites is to never give up more information than necessary.
"Anytime you put information on the Internet, people can always track that information back," Moore said.
While posting resumes offers little threat to personal security, one should always avoid revealing any information about their birth date, phone number, sex and race, she said.
The best way to avoid becoming the victim of such scams is to be aware, "do your homework and look into companies first."
David Thill can be reached at 581-7942 or at dmthill@eiu.edu.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Kim Randall
posted 4/13/09 @ 5:55 PM CST
This is a very good article, however not all job sites are scams. The job site I work for is rapidly growing and we do NOT sell anyone's information. We make our revenue in other ways. (Continued…)
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