By Nathalie Voit

In the era of covid and work from home, scammers are finding creative means to lure thousands of job seekers to their websites. According to a study by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), approximately 14 million people every year are exposed to phony employment scams, with an average median dollar loss per victim of $1,000. The rise in targeted fraud has increased as many people were left unemployed during the pandemic and desperate to work from home. 

According to BBB, 16,879 job scam complaints were filed last year with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, several thousand more than previous years. Between 2018 and 2020, the total monetary losses for employment-related scams also swelled significantly, jumping from $45,487,120 to $62,314,015, increasing 27%. 

“There’s a new generation of scammers advertising jobs on different job sites on the web and social media,” said Stephanie Garland, Springfield regional director for BBB. “They’re reaching out to people who are posting resumes on job boards.”

The most popular platform for fraudsters was Indeed. Of all the fake job listings encountered by survey respondents, nearly one-third of them originated from the popular job-search site. LinkedIn came in second, accounting for 7% of all employment cons reported to the BBB in 2020. 

The most likely victims of employment scams are people who are unemployed between the ages of 25 to 34, the study reported. According to Julia Pollak, chief economist at career-search platform ZipRecruiter, unemployed people are particularly vulnerable to such scams since many feel “financial pressure.”  

There are several red flags to watch out for when going through the application process, cybersecurity experts said. Swindlers often use poor grammar and misspell words since many are foreign. Another red flag? The email doesn’t come from a company domain. 

“Always click on the sender’s email address to see the full name, and if it seems suspicious, ask them to email you from their work account,” Pollak advised. 

Similarly, watch out if a company asks you to spend your own money or cover any company-related expenses.

Ada Yu, group product manager for careers at LinkedIn, warned against filling out sensitive personal information like direct deposit bank forms after just one interview. 

“No legitimate job will require you to spend your own money before getting a paycheck,” reiterates Pollack.

In short, if the offer sounds too good to be true, move on, experts said.