Posts Tagged ‘Job Postings’

Beware Of Job Fraud Scams!

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Searching for a job can be difficult enough, but when you finally spot the ‘job of a lifetime’ – just consider that if the job sounds too good to be true – quite likely, it is!

Imagine the job of “Designer - Developer/Applications/IT” with a tax-free salary of $120K for 6 months work.

Perks including Paid Overtime at $300 per hour, paid first-class accommodation, $3,000.00 flat rate travel/entertainment allowance for every intercontinental trip, free comprehensive healthcare, two weeks of paid vacation, a free laptop computer and free transportation/vehicle.

WOW!!! – Where do I sign up???

This is just one of the many recent postings on Monster.com – other jobs with the same salary and benefits are also available – including:

* Project Manager - Project/Infrastructure/IT
* Analyst - Systems/Support/IT
* Technical Advisor - Computer/Security/IT
* Analyst - Data Manager/IT/

Sometimes the scams are easy to spot – other times it can be more difficult. Quite often the job titles and job descriptions are often stolen from other legitimate employment sites.

You may be able to enter a snippet of the job description in double-quotes and find the original source through your favorite search engine.

For example, the position I mentioned earlier contained the text “(C++, Java, HTML, PHP, Visual Basic)” in the job description.

Search for this in Google (including the double-quotes) and you’ll quickly see how often this exact string has been used in scam-related job postings.

These companies (more likely individuals) have absolutely no intention of hiring you – they are simply after the “Administration Fee” you need to send in advance.

Here is an example of some terms on a recent posting on monster.com:

You are liable to make charges of about USD$950.00 for the procurement of your working and residential permit documents which covers:

1, Administrative charges:
2, Diplomatic Courier Charges:
3, Working Permit charges:
4, Residential Permit charges:
5, Hard copies of the terms:

They promise reimbursement of fees and travel expenses to attend the interview, but only AFTER you’ve shown up for the job and discovered they never existed!

In addition to money sent to the fraudsters in advance — you could be suckered in for airfare, hotel and thousands of dollars in other expenses.

Some obvious clues that should send up bright red warning flags:

* The job is in Nigeria, or posted on behalf of a Nigerian company. Quite often the jobs are IT-related in companies involved with oil, banking or mining.

* The contact is using @hotmail.com or some other free email service. Legitimate offers generally come from legitimate companies with real email addresses.

* The telephone number is a fake. Don’t even try to call. Most often, if the number even works at all, it leads to a mobile phone in Nigeria or a similar country. Check the country code before calling and see if it matches the company’s address (if they even provide one).

* Beware of requests for detailed personal information, such as a copy of your passport, birth certificate, SSN card and so forth. This trick is used to make the application more ‘real’ but if they can’t sucker you on the ‘application fee’ – they may just sell or use your identity instead.

* Quite often, there will be many errors in the references, spelling and/or grammar. Here is another example:

“You are to receive the hard copies of the contract terms and agreement and also your working and residential permit altogether, it will be delivered through Diplomatic Courier Services(DHL) to your various designated addresses respectively.”

Do a Google search for “Diplomatic Courier Services(DHL)” and you will again see dozens of listings discussing or exposing the scam.

There are many variations to this new type of scam. Currently, IT professionals seem to be the major target. Monster.com and Monster’s country-specific sites have become the hot target for these scamsters.

Although Monster does remove bogus job postings fairly quickly, the process to complain about them is difficult and time-consuming.

In many online job boards, there is no ‘filtering’ or human review process for job postings — otherwise such fraudulent listings would be need to be much more difficult. Many job boards also allow free postings for advertisers — making them even more attractive for scammers.

The important thing to remember is that few legitimate employers will ask for fees of any kind up-front – in fact, many employers will pay for your travel expenses in advance.

Don’t let the job of your dreams become a financial nightmare – be cautious when dealing with any business you can not easily identify or verify. Best of luck on your job search!

Building Your Resume Online

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Online employment websites provide all sorts of job postings for individuals.  You can visit their site, see a job that fits with your specific qualifications, apply and be hired, most of which can happen right through the web.  Yet, it is rarely as quick or as simple as that.  Often, there is much more completion for the job on the web then there are in your local area.  Nevertheless, there are many more opportunities available too.  One way to benefit from this site and get the edge is to build your resume online.

Resumes are the way the employer sees you.  It is your first impression.  It is what they are likely to hold in their hand and decide if you will get a call or if the trash bin is where your resume is headed.  In person, you can hand this resume to them, easily making the first impression in person.  When applying for jobs online, though, you must give them more than a job application to go with.  You need to have a resume online to send and it has to be the winning one as well.

What Online Job Sites Offer

One of the key benefits to working with an online employment websites is that you can easily build and then store your resume right on their site.  This allows you to easily access it any time that you need to send out your resume.  In addition, it allows you the tools, professional services and even helpful tips to making sure that resume is the very best option that it can be.  In short, it prepares you for success in finding your next job online.

To use these building services, pick a online site that provides them.  You can build your over letter, a standard application and the resume itself right online.  You can upload your current resume or work through the process of creating a professional resume through their site and services.

Take a few minutes now to find the right online job site for you.  Then, tap into their resume services.  There are a number of different choices that you have and you can of course use as many as you need to.  It is easy to have a professional quality resume in this way.

How Many Should You Use?

Monday, December 8th, 2008

When it comes to online job sites, there are a number of excellent opportunities out there for the individual to find the job employment that he is after.  With so many various websites dedicated to providing job postings, though, it can be somewhat overwhelming to find all of the opportunities that you may qualify for.  You really do not know where your best shot is, either.  Do employers post on several sites or just on one? 

Determine Your Plan

Online job sites complete with each other.  Their goal is to have as many possible openings for your needs.  The more jobs that they can post, the more individuals they can lure to the website.  This may be the very best way for you to find your next job, but wading through all of these websites may be time consuming.  Most that are searching for a job do not have a huge amount of time to do that. In addition, most employers will decide if they will pick up one or several online job sites depending on things like their past experience, the need that they have and what contacts they may have set up.  In other words, there is not a way to know where they will post their opportunities.  What do you do then?

To help you, consider these tips about using online job sites.

1.    Determine which job sites offer postings in your employment field.  It will take some time to find all of the sites available, but once you do, you can start getting rid of those off your list that do not offer jobs in your field.
2.    Next, look at just how many postings they have.  If they have only one or two for your field, you may be able to find those same postings on other sites, with many more job offerings as well.  If the number is minimal, cross off the site.
3.    Use your internet service to help you to set up favorites listing of all the sites that you have found that are potentially hot spots for your industry.  Visit them easily with one click, then.

Finally, when using online job sites; take full advantages of the services that they offer.  This may include such things as resume services and one click sending off your resume services.  These are helpful tools to make your job search a bit easier than it seems to be.