EXECUTIVE JOB SEARCH SCAMS–LET ME COUNT THE WAYS
Comments (0) As though looking for a new job isn’t stressful enough, let’s add scams and phishing warnings to the mix. As an executive, you are considered a high net worth individual. Your contact information is valuable. Learn to protect yourself from marketers and scammers with selective use of the Internet. Omit your home address, even from your resume and use a free email address from Yahoo or Gmail.
There are oh-so-many ways for miscreants to appropriate your identity, get your credit card information and entice you to send them money for job search related scams. And if you use the job boards, you increase the possibility of becoming a target. You don’t have to pay for a job, job listings or other services unless you initiated the outreach. And always double check the job boards to investigate a contact; determine the validity by new entries, not clicks to the site offered in the email.
Google (jobs, scams) and observe a circus of entries. The hopeful candidate is always willing to believe the emperor is fashionably dressed. My neighbor found a site that appeared to be recruiting for high income government jobs. The job descriptions were compelling, the salaries were uncharacteristically high, in the mid $150,000′s. Hard to resist making contact. With just a few Google clicks, I discovered it was bogus. The “recruiting” agent was selling extrodinarily expensive training (money up front, please) to qualify for those jobs.
It behooves you to check for scams periodically since the scammers and phishers are constantly reinventing efforts to get their hooks into your wallet. Sadly, the cliche’ “If it looks to good to be true, it probably isn’t,” applies even to a job search.
For just a glimpse at what Executive candidates need to fend off:
http://news.antispyware.com/?p=79
http://gadgetopia.com/post/3417
http://www.franzone.com/2007/10/16/a-monster-phishing-scam/
If you have been affected by a job search scam, let us know so others can learn what you know. Make comments here.
For detailed support for your search, purchase Job Search Debugged, Insider’s Guide to Job Search. For highly targeted and personalized guidance with your job search, consider Job Search Coaching.
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