The last few months have been challenging for the EU labour market. The main reasons are the influx of refugees and businesses making large-scale redundancies. Today, millions of people across the EU are looking for work. Unfortunately, the scammers have also noticed. They are ready to take advantage of any job seeker who is not aware enough to notice what is going on before it is too late. Some want to fleece people out of money. Others may target identity theft or even human trafficking. When looking for a job, it is important to avoid danger. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the top six ways to spot a fake job offer or scam.
1. They require payment from you
Scammers are skilled and creative. They may tell you that you are paying for training, necessary equipment or even for processing documents. Of course, they will only do this after they promise you an amazing job with all the benefits you can imagine. Sometimes it may be necessary for an employee to pay for a uniform, for example. In this case, ask for the costs to be deducted from your first salary. If they refuse, it may be time to look for another job. Unfortunately, if they refuse and you pay the required amount, you won ‘t get the job or uniform you paid for.
2. No job requirements
It doesn’t matter what the job is – there will always be certain requirements for applicants. However, scammers don’t want to reach only selected people. They want to try their luck with everyone. Therefore, the job description will be very vague if it is missing. If you notice that the job offer does not list any required skills, education, knowledge or experience, it is most likely a scam.
3. Check the employer’s website
Every serious company in the 21. century its website. And if the one you want to work in doesn’t have it, you have reason to be concerned. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Even if the company has a website, you should check it out just to be sure.
You can start with a web link. If it starts with http, it means that the website is not very secure. Instead you should see https. The“s” at the end stands for“secure“. This means that the server is secure and your data is encrypted. Since the https protocol was introduced more than 20 years ago, there are no legitimate employers who don’t use it.
Another thing you can do is to check if the position you have applied for is also listed on the company’ s official website. If not, it is best to contact the company directly via the contacts listed on the website. This way you can make sure that it is not a fraudster pretending to be an employee of the company.
4. Communication via e-mail
There are two main things you should look for in an email. The first is the so-called signature. Scroll to the bottom of the email. There you should see the name of the person you are in contact with, along with their email address and phone number. An email address from a reputable company should even contain much more data – information about the sender’s department, his photo, the company’s website and other general information.
You should also look at the email address. Does it end at @gmail.com, @yahoo.com or something similar? If so, this means that it is a free email address that anyone can register. On the other hand, any reputable company will have a corporate email address. For example, ours is @atena.org. Not only is it more professional, but this way you can be sure that you are dealing with an employee of the company and not a fraudster.
5. Salary is too good
Michael Douglas once said: “If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” Employers can’t just hand out money because they’ll go bankrupt. Each type of work usually has a set rate, which can vary from employer to employer, but cannot be several times higher. If you know that the normal monthly salary in your field is 1,500 euros and someone offers 6,000 euros for the same job with the same requirements, it is a scam.
6. They ask for your bank details
Nowadays, payment in cash is very rare. Of course, you will need to provide your employer with your bank account number or IBAN so that they can send you your wages. But if it asks for anything more – details such as your credit or debit card number, expiry date or CVV number, it’s a scam. They can’t withdraw money on your behalf or make purchases using your IBAN, but they can spend if you give them your debit or credit card details.
Like Atena does it contribute to solving the problem of fraudsters?
The problem an employer may encounter when it comes to imposters is that someone is impersonating them. But we are solving this problem by being incredibly transparent.
We are present on social platforms. We make our contacts public and use a company email address, which means that no one outside of our company can contact you on our behalf unless you verify who is sending the email. On our website, you will find every job we post on job portals and social networks. Our website is secure and encrypted. Most importantly, the personal data of our employees, clients and partners is stored on a highly secure server. We comply with all local and EU data protection legislation.
Do you know of other ways fraud can be identified? Share them with us in the comments section below.
