Scammers are hiring people for fake jobs at fake companies – and tricking people into taking on their roles.
Recent years have seen a huge growth in employment scams, which look to take advantage of job seekers by tricking them into applying for fake jobs. They have only grown as more jobs have become remote, and people may never actually meet their colleagues in person even at legitimate jobs.
The scams often involve fake job postings on real websites, that are then used to lure in ambitious job seekers. The scammers will then take them through a detailed and authentic-looking application process, leaving them thinking they are in line for a real job – and, in some cases, that they have really got it.
But the scammers will then let them down, abusing their trust by asking them to send money to buy equipment or through other means. Attackers might ask for money or personal information under the guise of advancing their application.
On LinkedIn, digital marketing manager Gustavo Miller described how he had been taken in by a job that appeared to be at crypto company Coinbase – but did not actually exist.
“A month ago I started a (fake) new job. I did a (fake) onboarding. I met (fake) colleagues,” he wrote on the site.
He went through the entire process of joining the company until he was asked to sign up to buy equipment for his…
