Identity Theft: The Job Scam
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Thousands of college students are graduating and looking for that perfect first job. Unfortunately, hackers and scammers are aware of the job competition and see this as an opportunity to exploit eager job seekers.
“Secretary of the commonwealth William F. Galvin Monday warned graduates entering the work force from college or graduate school to beware of e-mails soliciting applications for a false position at venture capital firms.”
link: Spammers Target Recent Grads
This is social engineering, with identity theft as the goal. Remember that legitimate offers will accept your application and personal information via snail mail or courier service. And, if you are encouraged to hurry and send personal information online, be very suspicious…
Catherine Forsythe
[tags]data breach, privacy, security, identity theft, spam, jobs, snail mail, courier, hackers, social engineering[/tags]
One Comment
Michael Durnack
May 15th, 2007
at 1:20pm
College grads are becoming a greater majority of victims for a number of reasons, including an unblemished credit rating.
Very few offers are made by finding a resume posted online. Most employers with jobs to fill get inundated with applicants and rarely have to go looking for a qualified one. If they need to, most worthwhile companies will use an employment agency.
Online job offers need to be verified via a second source. A phone call to the company, or an email via a link on the businesses web page will usually have a “positions available” section with a contact at HR.
All simple steps to defend yourself in the fight to prevent identity theft.