Lurking on sites like LinkedIn and Indeed, or among your incoming text messages and emails, lies yet another disappointment to dodge in the already lacking job market: fake recruiters.
Posing as representatives from top companies, they’ll contact you out of the blue, offering a job so tempting, that 40% of targets ignore the warning signs and move forward with the “interview.”
More than half of them, 51%, end up being scammed to give up personal data or money.
Those findings came from a survey of more than 1,200 U.S. job seekers published in October by Password Manager. “The prevalence of fake recruiters came to my attention several years ago,” says Gunnar Kallstrom, the cybersecurity expert who conducted survey for the company, which reviews password manager apps. “Since then, the number of fake recruiters has been on the rise . . . posing as recruiters for well-known companies.”
Per the survey, those companies include Amazon, Google, FedEx, UPS, Walmart, Apple, and “Facebook” (identified that way instead of by Meta in the survey), in that order of frequency.
These scams pose real risks for the job seekers who fall for them. Fake recruiters steal Social Security numbers, bank information, and passwords in a variety of ways, some sneakier, or more sophisticated, than others. The Better Business Bureau’s 2024 Scam Risk Tracker Report puts the median dollar loss at $1,500 for victims—no small sum, especially considering that these people are likely out of work.
Not only do they result in material losses; they also put a serious dent in morale for those on the employment hunt. More than half of Password Manager survey respondents said they’re now “less trusting of job opportunities” and “find the process more stressful”—40% say they’ve even let legitimate posts pass them by, too concerned that they’re being tricked again. The trend is a nuisance at best; an active threat at worst.
