Job Hunting: Another SCAM?! Fake job posting!

Anyone can clone someone else's profile on LinkedIn, then change it a little. 

Anyone can register a domain that "sounds like" an existing domain, or as we've highlighted before, claim to be a company that hadn't existed for 10+ years with a website contain false information. 

Armed with both, they can then post fake jobs on LinkedIn. 

Why? I have no idea. What would they do with all those resumes? Offer them fake opportunities? Like someone tried on me?  

But it's clear I ran into another scam, this time on LinkedIn. But let me start from the beginning. 

I was browsing for jobs when LinkedIn found this "Customer Service Representative" remote job listing. 

Screenshot of the fake job listing, did you spot the red flags? 

I have 6 out of 10 skills, yeah! But something nagged at me in the back of my brain... Something is "off" about this job listing. And I don't mean "cara jacobsen". Yes, that's how it's written... all lower case.

What's the first thing that caught your attention with the job listing itself? 

The post has horrible grammar ("a upbeat"), capitalization ("Customer service Rep"), and missing punctuation marks ("customers concerns"). And that's within the first sentence! 

But that wasn't what caught my eye. It's the mismatching company name. Did you see that the job listing was for the company "Empowered Build Inc", but "cara" works at Empowered build LLC"? (bad capitalization AGAIN?)

This job supposedly pays from $20-$43 per hour, just for customer service work! That's way too high. 

So what sort of profile does Ms "cara jacobsen" have? More red flags. 

Screenshot of potentially fake profile (from video)

The logo looks like it's done in MS Paint by a kindergartener. And she ONLY has 2 connections and 7 followers (probably from those 100+ people who applied). She had NO activity on LinkedIn. She allegedly lives in Shingle Springs, which is Central California, 100+ miles east-northeast of San Francisco. 

What can we find about "Empowered build LLC"? There's a website at www.empoweredbuild.net that matches, that claimed to be founded in 2012 "delivering top notch construction solutions". Yet if you go to the website, and scroll to the very bottom... it's based in CANADA?!

Empowered Build LLC gave a 579 area code, which is Quebec, Canada. 

Given the job listing mentioned construction equipment rental customers, does it even MAKE SENSE for anyone in the US to be renting equipment from a Canadian company? 

But there's more... When we explore the "team" at this Empoweredbuild.net, we found "Cara Jacobsen"... with a completely different photo. 

So who's the "real" Cara Jacobsen? Left is LinkedIn, and right is website. 
Screenshot of video expose

As I explore this "website", I came across the "team" page, giving 6 different people, supposedly employees of the company. Except this Cara Jacobsen (capitalized correctly) is clearly NOT the "cara jacobsen" on LinkedIn, despite same name (sorta) and same employer. Hmmm...

Google Reverse Image Search found no match for the left Cara, but it did find a match for the right Cara... on LinkedIn. 

This Cara has 149 connections and 170+ followers. 
The other "cara jacobsen" is very likely a clone of this one. 

But let's compare the two Cara's employment history, as given to LinkedIn... 

Exactly the same period of employment, hmmm...
then "cara" learned NO skills in HR and Insurance fields? 

When you combine this with the fact that "Cara J" has well over 100 connections and followers, and "cara jacobsen" has only a handful, it's pretty conclusive that "cara jacobsen" is a cloned profile. Which means the company is fake, and the job listing is fake as well. 

And let's just say of the 5 remaining photos on the "team", one of them is practically a stock photo. (Try Google Reverse Image search the bottom right, the African-American girl)

So I reported this job listing. 

Within 90 minutes, LinkedIn deleted the job listing. By the time I finished the video, the job listing no longer exists. 

Here's the video if you prefer to watch that: 

Don't get scammed out there, unlike the 100+ people who applied to this fake job. 

Another Suspected Employment Scam, This Time on Craigslist?

Previously I've told you about a suspected bogus job listing on LinkedIn. Well, I am still looking for a job. And this time, I ran into another suspected bogus job listing on Craigslist. 

On May 30th, I replied to a "technical support" position on Craigslist with my resume. The description was a little vague, but not vague to raise suspicion. 

Today, a "Scott" replied, implying he's the employer, but made no specific references to which company he may be replying for. However, I watermark all of my email addresses and resumes so was able to track it back to the job listing on May 30th via Craigslist. (You may want to do that in your future submissions)

Scott basically said that while they have choose their candidates and it was an overwhelming response, he was intrigued by my resume that he's going to refer me to a different guy who's also hiring, except this guy offers to pays double of the original CL job listing. Feel free to use him as a reference, include this email as proof, etc. etc. 

Something sounds fishy already... If you find my resume intriguing, YOU could have forwarded my resume to that guy and put in a good word for me. Why sent it back to me, with instruction to to contact that guy myself? That's just extra rounds of email? 

So I decided to dive deeper, and it's muddy waters indeed. This other guy has a email address with a domain name that IDs as an oil company. 

Googling the oil company shows an actual stock symbol, and a website, AND a LinkedIn Profile... except the website is only one page, no contact info, one address, at the famous New York 55 5th Ave building. The website contains no shot of the office, only of the building. 

The suite number is specifically listed by the leasing office as a SAMPLE UNIT available for lease. 

And the domain name was only registered in January 2024, for ONLY 12 months, and all private details blocked via proxy registar PrivacyGuard. 

Further research shows that the company was merged into a different oil company in 2012, and effectively ceased to exist then. It was headquartered in Texas, and registered as a corporation in Delaware. It was NEVER in New York. 

This is a fake company. And I've been referred to a fake person. 

Which means Scott, who referred me, is very likely fake as well. 

And now he has my resume, and god knows how many other people's resume who sent it in hoping it's a real job offer. 

P.S. "Scott" actually tried to ping me again, asking me did I get hold of his buddy. I did not bother replying. 

Scam? Or... just a way to sell you a service of dubious value?

Scammers are not stupid, and some of the scams can get pretty elaborate. With the economy in the tanks, and people looking for jobs, there's a growing "market" for scams against jobseekers. 

I don't know if this is one of them, but I have seen a similar scam before that did not involve a job. So, read on, and at the end, you tell me, is this likely to be a scam? But let me start from the beginning... 

Photo by Microsoft 365 on Unsplash

I was looking for a technical support position on LinkedIn when I came across this listing by a recruiter, allegedly recruiting for a top law firm with a large tech budget. The requirements are quite soft. In fact, it didn't even list "years of experience required" or any certification. I'm on the west coast, but this recruiter... is on the east coast? Well, it's not impossible... And the LinkedIn listing clearly says "SF Bay Area On-site"... 

So I hit apply, mainly out of curiosity. And I'm at the recruiter's website. And there's the position... Except it's for New York Metro Area. Huh?  

There's an upload resume button, which loads your resume to be parse with their ATS (applicant tracking software). That's fine, every recruiter has that. But right below that, is a button that claims to "AI Match your resume". 

So I clicked it. As I wondered what's that button doing there. 

It sent me to another website, where it claimed my resume is deficient in half of the categories they rate (in fact, my resume allegedly scored 0/0/5/5 where a full score is 5/5/5/5), and for a fee (of SEVERAL HUNDRED dollars), it will rewrite the the resume for me using AI to make sure I cover all the keywords. 

I looked at the ad again, there are no requirements, no expected duties, no "what you bring to the table". So how did this resume analysis software even came up with this rating for my resume, if there are no requirements in the ad? 

And what kind of recruiter puts TWO BUTTONS on every alleged job page that sends prospective candidates to that service, possibly pocketing money at every one who coughed up the dough? 

Minutes after I clicked away, decided not only I don't like this service, I can't afford it anyway, an email appeared in my inbox... The inbox attached to my job hunting email address... and nowhere else. Not only they "scanned" my resume, they are now spamming me with it. "This is the resume review you requested" yeah, sure. 

So I hit UNSUBSCRIBE. 

What do you mean I have to enter my email address again? WTF? 

For that, they are marked as spam. 

Then I reported the listing to to LinkedIn. 

And they acted upon it. 

No, I am NOT going to tell you what they did. This is NOT a name and shame session. 

The point is actually much simpler. If you don't feel comfortable, STOP! You often notice something wrong BEFORE you can verbalize or reason out what's wrong with it. 

Don't get scammed out there.