Fake jobs are the worse

Remote Work
#1

Hi Pangians

I wanted to hit a topic that hits close to home so many times for me. I never fall for them but I do get those butterflies in my stomach about the possibility if it were true. I am to discuss fake job posts. I have wanted to chat about it in a casual way and just never found the time. But I just wanted to help the Pangian family. I sadly feel its a rampant thing. Preying on those that just want to work remotely and with freedom. I am not sure but they seem to always come to me and its annoying and hurtful but I have spotted some great clues to differentiate them.

Fake emails- Dead give away. Most companies have their URL in their email so if you see someone with their name+the company name@gmail.com then get a little suspicious. So try to reply to emails like Jenny.Jones@ibm.com

Phone number- You have reached the voicemail box of… Ok ok I know HR can be busy. But if you hear “This is the google number for blank…” Think really hard. Why isn’t there a company voice mail system or at least their real name.

Google Hangouts- I remember a fun interview on there. They refused to show their face. They just kept texting and very odd questions. Very unprofessional and did I mention weird. They just kept mentioning about buying blank checks and if I can do “something” lol

Application status- “Oh just email me and you can start tomorrow!” What?! There is always a process and it includes HR. Fill out the online application with your CV/resume, do an interview and then fill out the tax papers. If you do not fill out tax papers then there is an issue.

Fee- Yes a fee to pay to get paid. Wrong again. Do not pay a fee to work for a company. Do not buy supplies to work for a company.

No such job wherever- Ok so you really really love this job so you decided to look into it further and it isn’t even listed on their website. Sob! Sob! Weep! No you aren’t special to get a special offer. It’s a scam.

Punctuation- i ThInK YoU wouLD maKE a GREat canDiDaTE. Walk away…walk away fast. I love a kidnap theme email any day…in a movie! If you are a highly skilled HR person or employee spelling is on the top of your game when hiring talent. Am I right?

Dinero- Yea I said it, the money. If the pay is too good to be true then its true. Data entry and $65 an hour. Who wouldn’t do that copy and paste job and be excited for payday. Know your worth. Payscale.com can tell you what you are worth on average.

Website- One time I got an offer for a scam job that made an entire duplicate of a website of a school. They even copied and pasted the employees pictures from the real website to theirs. I caught it because the names below them had their emails and it didn’t have an official US school email address. (Can you tell I am a sleuth muaahahaha (my best evil laugh… was that appropriate haha I don’t know but I wanted toot my own horn for a moment).

I am not saying I am the best of the best at seeing these fake jobs a million miles away but I want others to watch and be vigilant. What have you seen out there for fake jobs?

Ok I am going back to the job search grind. I wish you luck as well. I would love to chat with you here as well.
Cheers!

21 Likes
#2

Wow Monique @blasoviaerinna this is one of the best posts ever. That is one of the exact reasons I great Pangian - because I constantly see fake jobs, MLM, scams. In our Remote Job FB group we get fake jobs postings non-stop (we never approved them of course) but it shows the level of the problem.

Love, love, love all you examples of how to spot those. That is exactly what we see as well:

  1. Non-company email addresses, eg; gmail, outlook etc
  2. Major misspellings
  3. Unrealistic salaries
  4. No requirements when it comes to application process (just come and you get the job)

But wow, your example about inteview when somebody did not want to show their face??? That is crazy! And the whole website duplication scam? Absolutely bananas.

For us, everything we post on https://pangian.com/job-travel-remote/ is 100% vetted and now we are creating the biggest DB of remote comapnies (all verified) with our Mega List of companies hiring remotely - https://pangian.com/companies-hiring-remotely-2019/

Initially we started to create the list as a resource but your post here inspired me :slight_smile: for the list to also become a verification point. If the company is not on the list - there could be a problem.

Thanks so much for this post. This is super valuable

5 Likes
#3

You are welcome! I really felt inspired to share because I just think others should get a fighting chance. The great thing about this website is that you vet your listings which is refreshing. I know I can apply with ease with an employer!

And yes for the Google Hangouts interview. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to pan out as a real interview and I pushed to the limit to see how to get this person to reveal themselves. They first only wanted to text which was super childish then an old woman got on and she was so mean. I then turned down the job and the confrontation continued.
But as you can see people can be devious with the time they have.

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#4

Thanks. I have learnt something.

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#5

Thank you, very insightful.

That reminds me once I get a super good offer–the too-good-to-be-true–they copied the website and seems all legit, they even didn’t ask for money–yet.
I get suspicious when I sent my cv and the reply was “OK, you’re in, you can come and start next week”. I thought “Whaaat? No questions, no other infos, nothing?”
Then I searched and found out was a scam. Reported to authorities and original company.

4 Likes
#6

Wow. This is absoltuely crazy @alessio.

Yes those too-good-to-be-true are terrible :). On one side you already know something is off but dang it, you just deep down hope that maybe this time luck is turning your way :slight_smile: they trully know how to play with people’s emotions.

Love this thread. More examples can help so many people.

1 Like
#7

Hi @blasoviaerinna! This is an INCREDIBLE post. Thank you so much for the knowledge and love you share here. This is a HUGE help to our community and exactly the kind of support and empowerment we promote here. :slight_smile: You are definitely a Pangian with this kind of attitude. I learned something from this post!

Have you ever been a victim of a scam job? What influenced you to write this for us? :smiley:

2 Likes
#8

Thank you @Stevie I have not been a victim. Thank goodness. I just notice them a lot and its sad they get peoples’s hopes in in this rat race.

1 Like
#9

Yeah totally @alessio. It’s bananas! I always try to contact the company.

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#11

This is a great post!!

I can’t believe the amount of spam and lies and fake jobs there are targeting job searchers, and even more so for remote searchers. I had gotten a throwaway email address, because I expected the email barrage. I discovered I also need to get a throwaway phone number, because apparently taking advantage of jobseekers’ phone numbers and selling them to solicitors is also a thing!

It just makes me sad that, not only do we get put through the wringer with all the convoluted coding interviews and time sucking multiple rounds of interviews, but we’re also targets for personal data vampires and fake advertisements.

I just want to work… :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#12

Wow! Awesome post indeed @blasoviaerinna. Thanks.

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#13

I know I just want to work too!

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#14

You are welcome! It’s crazy huh?

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#15

Really great, comprehensive post. I have also nearly fallen victim to fake jobs. In my case, everything seemed normal until I was sent a zip file and told to download the file before my interview. Luckily it was flagged as spam before anything horrible happened.

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#16

Yea they are a tease alright lol

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#17

Thanks. I get the best information.

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#18

Oh wow, I really enjoyed reading this as I am about to embark on finding a remote job opportunity. Thanks for the pitfalls. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#19

No problem! Good luck!

2 Likes
#22

5 months of searching has led to finding some of those fake job offers. Some of them are posted on legitimate sites like Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, etc., while others come to me via email. And, yes, they target remote workers.

Then there are the legitimate companies that underpay because there are so many people willing to take $10/hour for a job that should pay double that. And let’s not forget the companies with a toxic environment!

I mostly find package-reshipping, check-cashing, and product testing jobs. Today, I got a response from sending out my resume to a company on CareerBuilder for “Quality-Control-Manager”. No company name, no signature, no address or phone number.

Glenn McGrew II,

We are considering you as the new Quality-Control-Manager for our company.

Key responsibilities include receiving goods and packages via mail, processing and checking them, working closely with the supervisors and making reports of work done.

We are paying $2800 per month and all applicable bonuses.

^^^^USA Residents Only.

Reply to this e-mail your name, phone and we will get in touch with you.

I’ve already done a few job scam exposes on my Steemit blog. I have two more to write, including the above, with the other being about TCQData.com/dataglobe.info.

[Beware Check-Cashing Hiring Scams — Steemit](https://steemit.com/scam/@reveurgam/beware-hiring-scams)
[Beware American Consumer Panels — Steemit](https://steemit.com/review/@reveurgam/beware-american-consumer-panels)
[Beware American Online Jobs (AOJ Work From Home Jobs) — Steemit](https://steemit.com/scam/@reveurgam/beware-american-online-jobs-aoj-work-from-home-jobs)
[Beware ISTS/Parcerly.com Package Job Scam in Murrieta, California — Steemit](https://steemit.com/review/@reveurgam/beware-ists-parcerly-com-package-job-scam-in-murrieta-california)

It seems you’re less likely to find fraudulent jobs on the job sites that focus on remote work, and/or curate their work. I have an article with a list that can help. Are You Looking for a Remote Job/Employee? Resources and Advice Here! — Steemit

I guess the good news is there are so many resources to help check on a company (which I mention in the above articles), like:

[Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/), [Indeed](https://www.indeed.com), [Consumer Affairs](https://www.consumeraffairs.com/), [TrustPilot](https://www.trustpilot.com/), [Google Transparency Report](https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=goshippo.com&hl=en), [Tineye Reverse Image Search](https://tineye.com/), [Google Maps](https://maps.google.com/) and [ICANN](https://whois.icann.org/).

Hopefully, my articles will help others! Sorry about the links - new users only get 2 links per message. :frowning:

4 Likes
#23

I got another response from that fake company today, from an amber@aol.com address:
Good day!

We have received your inquiry regarding the job of a Quality Quality Specialist and we are glad to offer you this job offer.
If you’d like to know more about the position you can fill in your Job Application form.

Our Google Documents will give you the insight regarding this offer :

Best regards,
Carol Williams
HR Team

In looking at it, it’s very obviously a fraud. The website is not searchable through a search engine. There is no app on Google Play or Apple App Store. Socmed links for team-members are blank. The address is in a large building that doesn’t have this company there.

Last night, I also found a fraudulent job on Outsourcely for Kaitko. I’m also suspicious of Outsourcely because most of the salaries are either extremely low or marked DOE/TBD.

2 Likes