Indicators to check if an email from an employer/recruiter is a fraud/scam

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Indicators to check if an email from an employer/recruiter is a fraud/scam

13 February 2010 2 Comments

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If you checkout your SPAM folder than most of the mail you will see, are of JOB Recruitment and Cash lottery. Most of the time these mails goes directly to your SPAM box, but with now these people has adapted a new method, its email scam.

There are two types of email scams – ‘phishing’ and ‘spoofing’. In both the cases, the ‘from address’ is forged to make it appear as if it came from a source that it actually did not come from.

What is Phishing?
Phishing is an attempt by fraudsters to ‘fish’ for your personal details. A phishing attempt is usually in the form of an e-mail, which encourages you to click a link that takes you to a fraudulent log-on page designed to capture your account/password/personal details. These emails can also be used to lure the recipient into downloading harmful software.

fishing20cartoon Indicators to check if an email from an employer/recruiter is a fraud/scam

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What is Spoofing?
Spoof emails usually include a fraudulent offer of employment and/or an invitation to perform a monetary transaction. Such email scams are, unfortunately, common across the world. The sender’s address is often disguised and/or the sender may not have provided the entire contact information, such as, the correct physical address, phone numbers and email ID.

The precautionary measures job-seekers could take to protect themselves against suspected spoof emails have been mentioned above.

If you have not heard the name of the company before, search on Yahoo, Google or MSN to see if the company has a genuine website.
Even if it has a website, check if other people have reported that the employer has been involved in job scams previously.
If the mail offers a job without a face to face interview
If the mail offers you a job you have not applied for
If the mail asks for your personal, non-work related information such as credit card numbers or bank information over phone or email
If the mailer asks for money-transfers, or payment for any employment/recruitment related purpose, such as immigration and visa processing, travel etc..
If the mailer has used free email IDs to contact you or as ‘reply to’ email IDs. For example, if you get a job offer from XYZ Petroleum Company, and their email ID is
xyzpetroleum@gmail.com or xyzpetroleum@yahoo.com then it is most probably a fake company. Real companies use their own domain name on their email, and do not use free email providers.
If the ‘reply to’ email ID is different from the ‘from’ email ID
If the contact telephone numbers are mobile phone numbers only, and no landline numbers are given