Job seekers targeted by online scams

It’s hard times for job seekers around the world, made even harder by the fact that they have been heavily targeted by those who don’t have qualms about taking advantage of their hopelessness to scam them out of that little money that they still have left or even make them unwitting accomplices in crimes.

BBC News enumerates many of the tactics used:

1. E-mail offers (unsolicited, of course) that fool recipient into believing that if they send their CV or person information in general they will be considered for a job. That information can be consequently used to carry out identity theft – criminals can open bank accounts in you name or even register an address.

2. Again, an e-mail is sent offering a profitable job like mystery shopping, with one condition: paying an entrance fee. Upon payment, the scammers take the money and disappear.

3. The money mule scam. Here is how it works: you apply for a job through a recruitment site that looks perfectly legitimate, but isn’t. The job in question is usually financial controller or similar position that requires the user to forward funds on behalf of e-commerce operations, and without knowing it, you have been recruited into a money laundering scheme.

The worst part is that even if you aren’t aware of it, you are still facing prosecution if the scheme is discovered.