Catherine Findley was desperate to find a new job after graduating from college, so when she found a website that promised to find her a job in her field of human resources for $500.00, she quickly handed over the money and waited for the offers to come pouring in. Within two days, her inbox was filled with job descriptions, none for the positions she had discussed with the consultant at the firm.
“They promised a job in human resource, but I all got was sales and work from home type roles,” said Catherine. When she called the company to complain, she was stonewalled and they refused to provide a refund or an explanation.
Catherine’s story is fast becoming a familiar one to our consultants at ResumeSolutions.ca. Faced with an unprecedented economic downturn, which has resulted in record high job losses across all sectors, many Canadian and U.S job seekers are eager to find employment and are flooding online job boards. Sadly, unscrupulous companies are just as eager to prey on them with bogus employment offers. Some of these organizations operate through legitimate online job boards and classifieds websites where they post great sounding job vacancies with high salaries and benefits. In turn, they ask job seekers for upfront monies and personal details to arrange an interview or to offer the position. ResumeSolutions.ca Career Coaches and Certified Professional Resume Writers consistently advices our clients that legitimate companies and recruitment firms do not charge potential candidates any fees for a job interview or for a job offer.
For many job seekers, online resources are a critical component of their job search. However, it is imperative that they demonstrate caution in the provision of private data to anyone online, regardless of how irresistible the proposed job opportunity appears. With the plethora of online job boards, career sites, job searching databases, networking sites, job seekers are constantly asked to provide personal data when registering to open new accounts, as such many are encountering problems in ensuring their privacy. Due to increased complaints and concerns, many jobs sites have made a concerted effort to increase their security in screening out unethical and fraudulent job postings. Unfortunately, many job boards, both large and small, do not have failsafe solutions to protect your privacy and adequately safeguard your personal information. Job seekers must be diligent when reviewing job advertisements and dealing with recruiting firms especial when asked to provide monies or personal data in exchange for a job.
Identity theft & Complaints
A major concern amount consumer rights professionals and law enforcement is the increased volume of frauds related to unethical companies who promises job leads and full employment in return for hundreds or even thousands of dollars in upfront payment. In 2007 alone, prior to the economic downtown, there were 5,925 complaints about recruitment agencies made to the United States Consumer Protection Agency for issues such as payments for job leads or counselling. It is safe to assume that with the continued depressed economic climate we would see an increase in the number of these fraudulent activities and in term complaints.
One of the most recent frauds involves emails purporting to be genuine job opportunities sent to job seekers with a request for personal information to move their applicant forward. Many of these emails have attachments that carry virus that are used to steal passwords for bank accounts, credit cards and social-networking sites and personal data to steal identifies. Most of these firms prey on new graduates, recent immigrants and job seekers who are desperate to find work. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission data, Identity theft ranks as the #1 complaint over 7 straight years in its annual "Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data" report.
According to a PhoneBusters report, there were 7,778 identity theft complaints made in Canada in 2006, making this a growing area of crime in the country. Ontario had the largest number of complaints with 3,353 followed by Quebec. Identify theft is a huge concern for job seekers as thieves can access their bank accounts and within this financial crisis have a ruinous effect on people’s lives as they can steal money from their accounts, open up new credit facilities in the your name or max out your credit cards. The increases in identity fraud complaints have lead to major police cases. One such case is a 2006 bust made by the Ontario Provincial Police, which exposed an identify fraud ring that targeted victims by starting with the solicitation of resumes to gain initial information.
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How to protect yourself during your job search:
- You should never provide your social insurance number for Canadian job seekers or in the U.S your social security number, date of birth, driver’s license, credit card numbers or any other personal data over the internet to secure a job offer or an interview.
- Many new immigrants to Canada and the US a lot of older workers still include their personal information such as date of birth, marital status on their resumes. This information can serve as a critical starting point of identity thief and further it is not required on your resume as per employment law in Canada.
- Exercise caution in the information that accompanies your resume, some job seekers have accidentally provided sensitive data such as tax returns, bank statements and other information when requesting resume writing services from ResumeSolutions.ca. This error can have devastating impact if the information fell into the wrong hands.
- You should expect a certain amount of spam during your job search. Many jobs are nothing more than opportunities for unscrupulous firms to harvest email addresses. So be cautious.
- Do not respond to request for money, download suspicious files, and provide personal data prior to undergoing an interview process and receiving a legitimate offer. Then only provide the personal data required for payroll and to sustain the employment relationship. Real employers do not ask for money or personal data from job seekers prior to a full-scale interview process and presentation of a job offer.
For many job seekers, online resources are a critical component of their job
search arsenal. However, it is imperative that they demonstrate caution in the
provision of private data to anyone online, regardless of how irresistible the
proposed job opportunity appears.
Surranna Sandy is the President of ResumeSolutions.ca. Ms Sandy is an expert in resume writing, interview preparation, career coaching,, employment trends, hiring practices and workplace issues. Ms. Sandy partners with both Fortune 100 companies and individuals to deliver targeted programs focusing on résumé development, job search strategies, networking, interviewing, and salary negotiation skills. Contact Ms. Sandy via email at
info@resumesolutions.ca or by phone at (416) 361-1290/1-866-361-1290.
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