January reporting of job scams is already 66% ahead of December 2022’s total, sparking worries this rise could exacerbate recruitment struggles and stress-test hiring processes.
Data from job scams advice body Jobs Aware also suggests the start of the year can be costly for those caught by job scams.
2022 figures show that 10% of losses across the whole year were from the first month alone.
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Scams include the WhatsApp messages offering jobs paying almost £100 per hour and Facebook posts offering out-of-the-blue employment.
Terry Payne, global managing director of recruitment agency Aspire, said employers need to be aware of how scams can hit their hiring chances especially as historically high vacancy levels still indicate a difficult hiring landscape.
Speaking to HR magazine, he said: “Fake job adverts dilute the impact that real adverts have, causing huge headaches for legitimate employers in dire need of staff.”
To counteract the risks Payne recommended that businesses work with trustworthy recruiters.
For candidates he suggested assessing whether the recruiter is real and use their industry knowledge to spot copy-and-paste fake adverts.
As many scammers are desperate to get candidate data, the risk of job scams is…
