Job Seekers Warned of Online Scams

People without jobs in Washington and the remaining states of the country are the latest targets of cyber criminals that pretend to be headhunters, warned the Office of State Attorney General on January 20, 2009.

Rob McKenna, Attorney General, said that as more and more people are searching for jobs, scammers are searching them, as reported by seattlepi on January 26, 2009. McKenna also added that no matter how desperate one might be for job, the job seeker must be very careful while posting his resume on the Internet or replying to the potential employers.

The news reports said that scammers are posting ads online that provide the opportunity to earn additional income by working from home. But innocent people who responded for the supposed job openings were tricked into wiring money.

Some other fake job ads led to the installation of malware on the user's computer. Citing an example, Attorney General stated, a lady from Kirkland (USA), while assisting her husband in finding a job, got an e-mail, which appeared legitimate and displayed a link connecting to an Internet site containing job opportunities for engineers. However, when the lady clicked on the link, malicious software was downloaded on her PC.

The software prevented her from downloading antivirus updates from her vendor and Microsoft. It also started sending spam messages from her e-mail account and at the same time changed configurations that caused other home PCs connected to her server to receive bogus information.

Another engineer who was also jobless experienced similar problem when he got an e-mail seemingly from a legitimate headhunter the engineer had earlier contacted.

The message directed him to provide his updated resume online as the agency thought he would be suitable for the post. The man said that when he clicked on the link to enter personal information, he realized that the sender's Web address was phony.

Thus, the Office of AG advises that people looking for jobs must avoid responding to job openings that ask to wire money up-front since it is clearly a scam. They must also avert clicking on links in suspicious e-mails while protect their private information when posting resume on the Web.

Related article: Job Hunters Conned By Mystery Shopping Scammers

» SPAMfighter News - 2/9/2009