JOB MAIL SCAM UPDATE: HOW TO MAKE YOUR ONLINE JOB SEARCH SAFER

Apparently, a higher percentage of available jobs that are not physically advertised are being listed daily on different job websites. Meanwhile, finding a satisfying job is a priority to any job seeker, which prompts searching everywhere including the internet for availability, resulting in an open avenue for job scam mailer to keep fake job emails rolling around.

As a job seeker, before you respond to job emails, it’s strongly recommend you do a discreet enquiry and verify the legitimacy of the employer. Try the following to verify the employer in your next job search.

UNKNOWN COMPANY NAME- Receiving a job offer via email from a company or employer that you haven’t heard about before is possible if you have previously signed up or have your curriculum vitae listed on job listing sites. It’s possible that unknown genuine companies as well as fake ones may contact you.

So take out time to search on Yahoo, Google or MSN to see if the company has a genuine website where you can get more information. Also check if other people have reported that the employer has been involved in job scams previously.

Also, don’t forget to ask your friends and families if they know about the company. You never can tell if they’ve received such email in the past without making it known to you, as the mailer do not know your relationships.

CONTACT EMAIL OR PHONE – Check if the mailer has used free or custom 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.

Also, see if the ‘reply to’ email ID is
different from the ‘from’ email ID. Sender and reply email shouldn’t be different, therefore, do not reply to emails that provide a different reply email ID.

A more reliable company should include office phone as contact number in its job email. Though the type of phone included in the mail may not determine in some cases that it is fake or genuine. For safety, don’t forget to check if the contact telephone numbers are mobile or office phone numbers. Clear your doubts before you call.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE – Employers or employment agencies do have website that will enable job seekers visit and learn more about them, and probably list their current job openings.

Therefore, some fake employers or agents do have websites too, they usually copy the website contents of a genuine employer and make it as real as a genuine one. Many fake employers or agencies are individuals in your next door, but their website may appear alike a renowned international company, with a foreign address and phone numbers.

Don’t you worry! You can still have a dog chain in their waist by searching WWW.WHOIS.COM/WHOIS/ in your browser, then input the employer’s website address in the search space, and click on search button to see all the information related to the website and its owner. Note that some domain owner can hide their whois informations, but reliable employers are expected to make their information open to the public.

Read the search result carefully, and look out for the following information:

1. Paid or Free Domain: See if the search result have shown that the website address is a paid or free domain name or an extension of a free domain name provider. Employers or agencies that uses free domain name are likely to be a scammer, genuine companies use paid domain name.

2. Domain Creation and Expiration Date: Check the creation date of such domain and compare it to the number of years in service claimed on the main website. Many job scam website will claim a very long years of existence, while domain name will show a creation date that is lesser than a year. Free domain expiration is usually one year after creation date. If it’s more than one year, then it has become a paid domain. But a scammer using a free domain name may not want to renew it to a paid one because they don’t usually use a single domain name for a long period to avoid being traced.

3. Registrant Organisation and Contact Informations: Such as full address and country, phone number, and possibly an email address should be available. Compare the phone number and contact address with the one provided on the main website, if the two are of different country, then you should rethink and look for more genuine evidence. Also, the registrant organisation should reveal the registered company name available on the main website that is searchable on google.com if there’s a need for further informations.

FINANCIAL AND PERSONAL
INFORMATION – An employer shouldn’t ask you for any kind of payment. Therefore, If the mailer asks for money- transfers, or payment for any employment or recruitment related purpose, such as immigration and visa processing, travel etc. You should know that it is a scam, if you come across such mails.

More importantly, Ignore job mail that
asks for your personal, non-work related information such as Credit Card numbers or Bank information over phone or email or online forms.

UNSOLICITED MAILS AND UNREALISTIC BENEFITS – These are some of the tricks fake jobs advertisers use as long as they have your email address. But it’s safe if you avoid job offers that you have not applied for or that offers unrealistic amounts of remuneration or benefits, and mails that offers jobs without a face to face interview, or without any arrangement for other reliable means of interview. Offers as such should be disregarded.