How to Avoid Online Jobs Scams

Online jobs scams are becoming more and more sophisticated, so you need to find out how to avoid online jobs scams.

“No experience necessary” is often the starting point to wondering if you are being scammed as that gives you the impression a job’s available, potentially luring in a vast number of job applicants.

If the company then interview you and offer you the job, how do you know if you’ve been scammed?

You can start by asking yourself the following:

• Have you checked the company out?
• Are they a real company? With buildings and staff?
• Did you contact them directly yourself to double check the job exists?
• Did you go to their building to be interviewed?
• Are they asking you to pay for anything, such as credit checks, police checks or DBS checks?

Scammers can carry out entire online interviews and make job offers for legitimate companies that have no jobs going at all – often asking you to pay for police checks.  This is their scam, collecting the fees for the checks.  The video you might watch explaining the job might simply be an actor hired to be video’d, maybe being paid only $5 to make that video for them and having no idea they’ve been duped too!

One organisation that’s set up to help you spot a scam, or to report a scam, since 2008 is Safer-Jobs.  Working with the UK’s Metropolitan Police and other UK Government bodies, they can help you work out if you’re being scammed or not.

Taken from the Safer Jobs Website: 

SAFERjobs (Safe Advice for Employment and Recruitment) is a non-profit making organisation created by the Metropolitan Police to raise awareness and combat criminal activities that may be attempted on those within the industry or through the services provided by the industry. SAFERjobs has GOV UK status and works with a number of government organisations to protect people searching for work or currently working within the recruitment sector.

Why was it set up?

Launched in November 2008 with the Metropolitan Police, the purpose of SAFERjobs is to help protect jobseekers, employers and service providers from crime during the process of communicating and fulfilling/acquiring employment opportunities by:

• Preparing and promoting best practice advice, common experiences and trends on how to avoid recruitment related crime
• Gathering and sharing intelligence via the SAFERjobs website and other forums that could reduce recruitment related crime, including current scams, fraudulent practices and other criminal activities.

Who do we work with?

SAFERjobs works with the Metropolitan Police, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Trading Standards, City of London Police, the Home Office, Crimestoppers, Action Fraud, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, recruitment industry trade associations and private sector recruitment businesses.

Website: Safer-jobs.com