How to Identify and Avoid Fraudulent Job Postings
Looking for a job or internship can be an exciting time as you navigate the next steps on your career journey. However, some of the position postings you come across during your search may be fraudulent postings by created by scammers. While conducting your job or internship search, use the following tips to protect yourself and your personal information.
Red Flags to Look out for:
- Job posting asks for ANY personal financial information (bank accounts, paypal, credit card info, etc.) and/or asks for payments
- Really high salary for minimum qualifications/responsibility
- Job description does not cover job responsibilities or location, and only covers the (financial) perks of the position
- Contact email address is a non-business email domain (@live.com, @yahoo.com, @gmail.com, etc.)
- There is no official company website or the website is not detailed/only contains information about the job posting
- The posting contains grammatical and spelling errors
To determine whether a post is fraudulent:
- Google search the organization name and the word “scam” (e.g., ABC Company Scam) to see if there are any scam reports concerning the organization.
- Search the company name on Ripoff Report
- Search the company’s phone number, fax number, and/or email address. If this information does not link to an actual company, it is likely fraudulent
- Verify the company through the Better Business Bureau, Dun & Bradstreet, and/or Anywho
If you think you have been scammed:
- Contact your local police department (as an RWU student, you can contact the Department of Public Safety)
- If the scam involved money being taken out of your bank account, call your bank to dispute the charges
- If the incident occurred entirely over the Internet, file a report with the Department of Justice or by calling the FTC at: 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)
