Who thought you would have to do background checks on a potential employer? But according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, some of our more unsavory folk are posting fake job ads on the Internet, in order to steal your identity.
Increasingly, scam artists are taking advantage of the economic downtrend and job shortage to pry from job applicants their sensitive personal information. If not careful, when applicants are applying online for a job, they may instead be providing their social security number and financial information to some joker or ring of jokers that has anything but a job in mind.
The article advises to use caution. Don’t provide your social security number, until a position is secured. Don’t give out your bank account number. And do a background check on the company allegedly offering employment. I’m sure a Google search will expose you to any number of Internet job scammers.
It is quite something that in a rotten economy and a lousy job market, that some will exploit the unemployed and often desperate by trying to scam them out of , for many, what little savings they may have left. It’s an ugly situation. And one that can best be avoided with prudence and discrimination.
Check them out before they try to hire you.
