At a time when employers are frantically searching for candidates to fill open jobs, scammers are taking advantage of those looking for job opportunities on seemingly trustworthy employment websites.
Mineral, a human resources firm based in Portland, said someone targeted its job applicants earlier this year by pretending to be recruiters for the company on LinkedIn, the online network for building professional relationships.
“I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have fighting LinkedIn scammers on my bingo card this year,” Suzame Tong, vice president of corporate marketing at Mineral, said in a video post to other professionals working in her field.
The scammers created three fake profiles to pose as employees for Mineral, including as a hiring manager for a legitimate open position and a human resources manager.
The scammers hosting these fake accounts then made connections through the social network with real Mineral employees employees. By connecting with legitimate employees, Tong said in an interview, the scammers built a veneer of credibility.
Luckily, Tong said, a colleague sent her one of the profiles, which she was immediately able to identify as a fake because it claimed to be one of the company’s graphic designers.
“Those people report to me,” Tong said. “That was when I thought, wow, what is someone trying to do by pretending to be a person in the role I’m hiring for?”
While LinkedIn has a system in place to automatically delete fake profiles —
