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...
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| 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.
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