Are Fake Jobs on LinkedIn a Real Threat?

With the current economic climate, many people are looking to change jobs and take advantage of the opportunities available. Unfortunately, the reality is not so favorable, let alone in times of the Great Renunciation. Online fraud impersonating LinkedIn is still thriving and, in fact, has exploded in recent months. Flexjobs admits that for every legitimate work-from-home job, there are approximately 60-70 job scams.

The Better Business Bureau is warning people to watch out for scammers posing as potential employers on LinkedIn. Scammers can be very successful with very simple and old tricks, such as asking you for your bank details or advance payments in exchange for a seemingly legitimate job interview. Others can be very sophisticated. In tests carried out by BleepingComputer, an unaffiliated LinkedIn account was able to successfully post a new job offer on behalf of BleepingComputer, almost anonymously.

Using LinkedIn's Easy Apply option, any resume uploaded by an applicant can be sent directly to a test email account, instead of being redirected to an external website. Most legitimate job descriptions usually list the benefits of a position, but fake job offers have an unnecessarily long list. For this reason, it's no surprise that there's been an increase in the number of fake recruiters who send fake job offers to obtain sensitive data from LinkedIn users.

Phishing

methods are often used by scammers once they have fooled a LinkedIn user into believing that a job offer is real.

The scammer creates a false or synthetic profile that is used to represent themselves as a hiring agent or an elderly person in a company. It takes focus and patience to get from one job to another and fill out endless forms, perhaps to the point of causing emotional distress, and even without a real job offer in sight. Undoubtedly, most job seekers and recruiters will turn to LinkedIn in the hope of finding the right candidate. Once trust is established, the scammer is more likely to successfully trick a target LinkedIn user into believing that a job offer is real.

In addition, Singh suggests informing your hiring and human resources teams so that they regularly monitor your company's LinkedIn pages and report any false posts on LinkedIn as an alternative, albeit slower, solution.Protect your employees and your organization from scams such as the

LinkedIn job offer scam

with WebTitan. These offers usually ask for additional personal information at the first contact, even if what you've already provided in your LinkedIn profile and resume, such as your name, age of residence and contact details, is more than enough to get you a job interview.