Online job frauds have been increasing in recent years as more and more people look for employment opportunities online. These frauds can take many forms, such as fake job postings, phishing emails, and schemes where the fraudster poses as a legitimate employer and requests personal information or money from the job seeker.
One of the reasons why online job frauds are increasing is that they are relatively easy to set up and can be difficult to detect. Fraudsters can create fake websites and email addresses that appear legitimate, and they can use social media and other online platforms to reach a large number of potential victims.
Another reason is that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a spike in unemployment and an increase in the number of people searching for jobs online, which makes it easier for fraudsters to target job seekers who may be desperate for work.
It is important for job seekers to be vigilant and to take steps to protect themselves from online job frauds. This includes being cautious of job postings that seem too good to be true, researching the company and the job posting, never paying money or providing personal information to an employer, and being skeptical of unsolicited job offers or requests for personal information.
Overall, it is important to be cautious when searching for job opportunities online, and to verify the authenticity of job postings and employers before providing any personal information or money.
Is Your Job Offer Fake or Real ?
The rapid growth of information and communication technology has completely changed the way of job search. Nowadays all our employment search begins online and this gives an opportunity to cybercriminals to trick us into scams.
Job frauds are a sophisticated fraud, offering fictitious job opportunities to job seekers. This type of fraud is normally done through online services such as bogus websites, or through unsolicited e-mails claiming to be from known companies or brands. It has become difficult to determine whether a job offer is legitimate or fake.
You can always stay one step ahead of fraudsters and find a legitimate job by following below given tips:
1) Avoid opportunities on search engine advertisements:
Always search and apply for jobs posted on authentic job portals or newspapers. Do not apply for jobs posted on search engine ads, social media advertisements or labelled sponsored links or results.
2) Check privacy policy of job sites:
Before registering on any job search portal, check the privacy policy of the website to know the type of information collected from the user and how it will be processed by the website.
3) Do research:
Always try to check the company’s website if you have found a job opportunity on any other website to check the authenticity of the job and know more about the profile.Very often companies put their manpower requirements on their official website under the ‘careers’ section.
4) Don’t respond to unsolicited emails:
Always keep a note of where you’ve applied for the job. Do not respond to any generic emails from an unknown company, as it could be a scam
05) Fake Government Jobs:
Always check the website of the Government organisations for details about the job openings in a Government department. All government websites have gov.in or nic.in as part of their website address (e.g. www.mha.gov.in).
All Government organisations always advertise vacancies in the leading newspapers and Employment News ond official online websites.
6) Check for spelling mistakes:
Always look for the spelling errors in the e-mail address and job descriptions. If an email has spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors, it could be a scam. The email address looks similar to the actual company. Examples of suspicious addresses include “[email protected]” instead of “[email protected],” and misspelled company names like “[email protected]” or“[email protected].”
These days, many job portals offer paid services for resume writing, Use verified job portals, resume promotion,and job alerts.Before paying to these portals, check authenticity and reviews of the website.Consult your family and friends to know about reliable websites.
7) Never pay for a job:
Beware of the emails, which offer jobs in exchange for money as such e-mails are spam. No organization/ company ever asks for money to work for them.
8) Online interview:
These days many organisations conduct interviews through telephone, chat services, Skype calls or Google hangouts. Always do proper research about the organisation and its representative before the online interview. Make sure to ask detailed questions related to the job and the organisation from the interviewer.