If you were born before 1960, you may remember a strange phenomenon that was once used by some people to shortcut the process of catching fish. Instead of using a fishing pole and waiting patiently for a fish to swim by and take the bait, they would take a boat out into the lake with several sticks of dynamite in hand. A quick setup and a toss of one of those sticks of dynamite into the lake resulted in an underwater explosion - either killing or stunning all of the fish in the general area of the explosion. Once dead or stunned, the fish floated to the surface and the so-called fishermen could scoop them up with a net and fill their boat with the catch of the day. Now outlawed and much more difficult to buy the tackle required, fishing with dynamite is pretty much a thing of the past. In the past few years a new type of activity has been commonly referred to as Phishing. This does not involve water but involves using bait to catch unsuspecting victims. Once caught, victims give the Phisher their personal information. This type of scam started online with the phony bank emails asking people to update their information. It then spread to the phony email pretending to be from from that big auction site or the payment processing company they now own. Next was the fraudulent email from the African business people asking for help to transfer millions of dollars from their deceased relatives accounts. Then there was the one in which a poor rich individual was dying and they wanted an honest person to take their millions and distribute it to charities. And lastly in this series has been the business partner needed scam where the foreign company needs an agent to help them in this country. Most of these rip-off scams were geared to trying to get your personal sensitive information to be used to empty your bank account or to commit identity fraud. Now there is a brand new assault that is targeted at the unemployed and what a good target they can be. Why are the unemployed a good target? Most people who experience unemployment suffer from elevated anxiety about their future. This anxiety increases over time, the longer the period of unemployment continues. Today with the miracle of the internet, we can search for employment online via massive job sites. You know the big ones, you have seen the commercials and possibly you have even uploaded your resume to them. The scammers have seen the commercials too. Now they have begun to use these sites disguised as employers offering really good paying, interesting sounding jobs. One of the recent ones was related to a talent agency. Here is how the process goes. You get an email from the prospective employer telling you that they have seen your resume on the job site and they would like you to fill out their online application and send a resume. In some cases, this is the only step, if they ask for things like your SSN in the application. They might really have it worked out and take it further. They may only ask for basic information and have you upload your resume. Then they build on the game - they make you wait. About a week or so later you get the congratulatory email saying that you have been selected from applicants, and to go online and fill out the agreement, after which you have to fill out the insurance forms, or the W2 form so you can begin your training. Alarms are going off and red lights flashing! As a person who has been unemployed for three or more months, wouldnt you love an offer making $75-100 thousand dollars a year? I guarantee that some people are giving all of their information. In investigating one of these scams, I found that one online scammer had built over 50 different web sites under 50 different company names. Each time they got the boot from the online job site, they just started a new bogus company. In fact some sources for my research said that some of the information stolen was not used for identity theft, but sold to other scammers and spammers for their use. So now, everyone is officially a target, if you have money, no money, if you are an adult or a child, if you are living and breathing and even dead, your personal information can and may be stolen. If or when it is will you have been the one who gave the information away in desperation of getting good employment? My guess is if you are reading this article, you wont. Remember these points: 1. When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2. A good paying job usually requires a face to face interview.
3. Even a criminal can buy a secure web site.
4. Online job sites do not screen employers. Use caution online, its a high speed jungle out there and now, theyre Phishing with dynamite! |
