5 minute read
Key Findings
- A recent uptick in layoffs across industries has seen increased efforts by threat actors to target job seekers with employment scams.
- The tech industry has been particularly hard-hit with layoffs since 2022.
- Threat actors utilize employment-related scams in order to obtain sensitive personal and financial information on their victims.
- Fake job postings in 2022 cost victims nearly double what they did in 2020.
- Even though organizations are not responsible for the creation of fraudulent job postings, their brands can be negatively impacted by these scams.
Analyst Commentary
Employment scams have plagued the job market for years, causing headaches for applicants and organizations alike. These scams are perpetrated by fraudsters attempting to take advantage of job seekers by pretending to be employees or representatives of well-established organizations in order to obtain personal or financial information from the victim. The bad actors utilize various methods, including impersonating legitimate organizations, gathering personal information via fraudulent employment applications, or asking for banking information as part of job offers. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an unprecedented rise in employment scams, as threat actors leveraged the remote work environment…
