Beware of impersonators hijacking your company’s identity

Just when it seems consumers have caught on to one particular online scam or phishing expedition—think of the ubiquitous Nigerian prince email scam that first began making the rounds in the 1990s—a new one comes along. By now, the list seems endless: online dating scams, bank and credit card scams, fraudsters posing as charities, social media quizzes designed to collect personal information, and lottery scams. Now you can add another one to the list that’s significantly gained popularity since the start of the pandemic: job recruitment fraud.

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In a job recruitment scam, fraudsters impersonate an employer’s recruiting, interviewing, and employment team, create bogus job offers, and target job seekers by using fake websites or fake email addresses. They then post the fraudulent employment opportunities as the company they’re impersonating to obtain sensitive personal and financial information from the unsuspecting employment applicant.

Some fraudsters go so far as to impersonate a company’s former employees, communicate with and hold interviews with applicants, and even extend job offers on behalf of the company. Employers have even reported individuals showing up for their onboarding meetings when a job requisition has never been opened. Occasionally, the scammers request payments as part of their fake recruitment process.