Has your company been recruiting people online? Do you post ads on job boards and other internet recruiting platforms?
If the answer is yes, you need to keep reading, because hackers and scammers are maliciously targeting employers who advertise their jobs online.
It happened to my company, and I personally know of two local Kitsap Peninsula companies who’ve been targeted in the last couple weeks.
Don’t think your business is immune to these attacks!
Hacking into your company accounts on job boards:
The scammers are hacking into employers’ accounts on job boards like Indeed and ZipRecruiter.
Once they are in, they will clone your company’s jobs, listing them in another location. They might inflate the salary in order to entice more applicants.
When someone applies through the job board, they are redirected to the hackers’ email address instead of the legitimate business.
Obtaining sensitive information from job seekers:
What happens next to the unsuspecting job seeker caught in this scheme?
They’ve now provided their resume and contact information to the scammers, who will contact them about the job.
The con artists then request social security numbers and dates of birth, claiming they need them in order to perform a background check on the job applicant. Once a job seeker gives that information to the hackers, their identity is stolen.
In some instances, the candidate will be asked to provide their bank account information in order to receive their pay.
Another scam is to have them provide credit card information to pay for something minor like a pre-employment background check.
The sky’s the limit for the bad guys!
You need to use better passwords:
Create a complex password for the job boards you use.
Your password should contain:
- At least 8 characters
- Letters in both upper and lower case
- Numbers
- Special characters
The password should not be similar to ones you use elsewhere.
You must change your password frequently. Don’t get lazy and just change a letter or two! Change the entire password.
Check for phony job posts:
Be on the alert for phony job posts for your business.
If someone applies for your Bremerton job and they are in New York, your job may have been reposted by a scammer.
Do a search on the job board for other positions posted in your company’s name. That’ll help you know whether it’s legitimately someone moving here, or the victim of a scam.
If it’s a scam, immediately contact the job board immediately. Be persistent in working with them to remove phony ads, protect your account, and your credit card.
Check your credit card for unusual charges:
Create a system to verify that each credit card charge for job boards is legitimate.
If the scammers hacked your account, they will happily post multiple jobs using your on file credit card.
Warn job seekers about scammers:
Put a warning on your website Career page about avoiding scams.
Spell out your hiring process in detail. This helps a job seeker recognize whether the job process they’re involved in is legitimate.
Give job seekers an easy way to contact you if they have questions. Consider providing a link to information about online job scams to give candidates more resources.
Protect your company’s reputation:
Our corporate reputation is extremely important to all of us.
When we recruit, we’re selling both a job opportunity and our company to the candidate.
We don’t want someone bashing us on social media sites because they think we’ve participated in a scam of them. We all have to be vigilant and stop the hackers in their tracks.