Job Seekers Deal With Scammers Posing as Recruiters
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Here's your Money Briefing for Wednesday, January 18th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Tech companies who've been cutting staff following their pandemic hiring sprees have left thousands of workers on the hunt for a new job. But to add insult to injury, some job seekers in tech and other areas are being contacted by scammers who are posing as job recruiters.
Things got really weird when they started asking questions like, if hired, would you like to be paid monthly or bimonthly and via bank transfer or by check? And the next question was, would you please verify your bank institution information?
Coming up, we'll talk with a California resident about other red flags she encountered while dealing with a scammer. Plus, our personal finance reporter Amani Moise will be here to discuss ways that job seekers can avoid being scammed and why you should report a scam attempt right away, whether you've been swindled out of money or not. That's after the break.
This podcast is brought to you by ReliaQuest. Cyber criminals are constantly attacking. They want your data. They want your identity. They want your innovation. ReliaQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense, AI that detects, contains, and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest, agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at ReliaQuest.com. That's R-E-L-I-A-Q-U-E-S-T.com.
The first cracks to occur in the otherwise strong jobs market are happening in the tech sector, where dozens of companies have announced layoffs. That has tech workers scouring job sites, and scammers are ready to pounce. And they aren't just targeting tech. In a moment, we'll hear from a California woman who was nearly the victim of a fraudster posing as a recruiter. But first, WSJ reporter Imani Moise joins us with more on this troubling trend. Imani, thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for having me. So, you know, Amani, scammers finding new ways to dupe people, I mean, it goes on all the time.
How are scammers posing as recruiters flooding laid-off tech workers?
But when did they start zeroing in on laid-off workers? And how widespread a problem has this become?
They've been targeting people looking for jobs really since the beginning of the pandemic. According to the FTC, the number of reports of job-related scams tripled from 2019 to 2021. And we're looking at now an annualized average of 100,000 fraud reports annually.
Wow. And how are they doing this?
So it depends. There's a few different methods that they use. Sometimes they'll create a dummy listing. So it's a fake job advertisement. And when people apply to that, they'll respond with an interview and kind of start the wooing process in that way to try to get your information. Or sometimes they're cold calls. They'll say, hey, I saw your profile on some recruiting website like LinkedIn or ZipRecruiter or something like that. And they say, we love your qualifications. Do you have time for an interview? And what they're also doing is that they're following the news. The FTC says scammers always follow the headlines. So if they're seeing layoffs in a particular sector, they're going to target that sector.
Or if they're seeing that people are really excited about cryptocurrencies, they're going to target people with new crypto jobs.
Oh, so you better be up on the news. Absolutely. The scammers are. All right. And so the scammers have had a lot to read about because we've seen a lot of layoffs in the tech sector and other sectors.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:44
2
How are scammers posing as recruiters flooding laid-off tech workers?
2:44–10:29
3
When did fraudsters start targeting jobseekers and how widespread is the problem?
10:29–11:58
4
What methods do fake recruiters use to find and contact candidates?
11:58–13:11
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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