TULSA, Okla. — With freshly graduated high school and college seniors looking for summer jobs or to start careers, scammers are hard at work trying to trick them into revealing personal and banking information.
New data from Norton shows its not just grads getting suspicious texts, emails about bogus job listings and calls from phony recruiters.
- 59% involve phishing schemes
- 49% involve fake job offers
- 41% request personal or banking information
Norton's Director of AI and Innovation, Iskander Sanchez-Rola told 2 News, "This is bad because these scams don't just waste your time, they can lead to identity theft, financial loss and obviously emotional distress."
He adds, new grads are targets because they may not know how real job offers are handled. "The most common tactics are you receive an unsolicited message via text, email, or in general social media about a job. Most of the time, too good to be true.
And the job requires little effort, promises high pay, and often doesn't even require a physical interview or, or even an online interview."
Other red flags include:
- Being asked for personal information like your Social Security number or bank account information before you are hired.
- Being asked to pay for training, equipment or an application processing fee upfront.
"Someone that has been like in the market for multiple years, they know that they don't have to pay for training," said Sanchez-Rola. "They know that you will never pay for application processing or an equipment even before you're hired and no one will ever ask for this. But someone that is starting in the job market, they are not aware of this. So they think that's the normal, but it's not the normal."
Norton found:
- 60% received phony recruiter emails
- 40% found bogus job listing on social media
- 30% saw fake jobs advertised online
- 26% found fake company websites built to mimic real company sites to trick prospective job seekers
Sanchez-Rola said, "It really looks legit. So we end up having this kind of fishing style websites where they impersonate other companies so you really think you are talking to that specific company but it's actually not real, so they are completely fake websites."
The Federal Trade Commission warns of a significant rise in "task scams." These ask victims to complete simple tasks online like rating products or liking videos - initially for small payouts. The scam escalates into asking the victim to "invest" their own money usually in the form of crypto currency. Once the money is sent it's gone forever.
If you believe you've seen or are the victim of a job scam, report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Online reports can be filed at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or by calling 877-382-4357.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Watch LIVE 24/7 on YouTube
