PHOENIX — Fake job offers are now one of the most prolific and fastest-growing scams in the U.S.
"When you get a text, somebody offers you a job, you feel like, oh, somebody likes you… they've noticed your talent,” said Susan Tompor, who recalls getting a text that sounded appealing earlier this year.
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The person claimed to be a recruiter from a major employment site and was ready to offer her a work-from-home position that paid up to $1,000 a day, but Tompor is a journalist, and she knew the offer was scam, because the sender wanted to talk on the encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp.
"Everyday recruiters are not going to talk to you by an app," she said. “They're not using messaging apps, where they can do some hiding, like Telegram or WhatsApp or Google Chat.”
“Honestly, I get two or three of those a week myself,” said Paul Keener, a cybersecurity strategist for GuidePoint Security.
Keener says scammers often look for opportunities to get money or credentials from someone who’s in a vulnerable situation, “because somebody lost their job, and so now they’re kind of in a desperate situation, or maybe not desperate, but unexpected,” he said.
Keener says anytime there’s a natural disaster, workers are at risk of becoming a target too.
“That’s what they’re looking for and waiting for,” Kenner said. “For people to be focused on that, and not focused on looking at the details of emails or SMS attacks or those types of things.”
Keener says they have a threat intel report that tracks adversary actors, the people doing these kinds of scams, that they put out once a quarter.
“We saw a 25% increase from 2022-2023,” he said. “We’re seeing a similar-sized increase 23-24... we’re talking over a $180 million increase.”
So how do you determine if a job offer is a scam, or a legitimate job offer? He says you should never single source your job hunt, but rather do your research on the company and determine whether they are truly hiring.
“Try your best to identify a legitimate source for the information, whether it’s the website for the company or alternatively, where you are going through a reputable job firm,” said Keener.
He says if you’re ever involved in a scam where money is involved, report it to your bank, local law enforcement, and finally the FBI.
“File a complaint on the FBI’s IC3 website,” he said. “That allows you help the FBI look at kind of an overall pattern of attack… the FBI’s really good at identifying patterns and putting cuffs on bad guys.”
In Tompor’s case, she avoided the scam by following the advice experts like Keener recommend - think twice before accepting a job offer, especially if it sounds too good to be true.
"I know that the scammers… these are elaborate crime networks,” she said.
Another place you can report a job scam if someone attempts to scam you, or you end up losing money to a scam – the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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