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Latest ID Theft Tactic: Fake Job Listings
citking writes "News.com.com reports that, in an attempt to curb identity theft on its service, online career listing site Monster.com has begun warning its users of fake job postings bent on stealing personal information. 'Regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers', according to an e-mail sent by the company yesterday to registered users. With the increasingly difficult job market, things such as background checks and non-disclosure agreements are becoming more and more difficult to avoid, so where does one draw the line for giving out personal information in response to a classified ad? CNN has a small article about this as well."
These people just all get sued and jailed ? I don't understand how can some people get away with theft of privacy and that kind of stuff in a country such as ours. I guess the temporary technological solution would be to create a special email account just for your resume, and ask people to contact you through email for more info... But I bet employers won't like that...
I googled(tm) for "cperciva". I found a lot of links to your Slashdot posts and user page. Are you sure you want employers to see that?
Transcript show: self sigs atRandom.
A friend of ours has regrettably had to undergo the torture that identity theft wreaks on ones life. Unfortunately, the laws concerning and consequences of this type of crime are not commensurate with the damage they cause. This friend is one of the hardest workers I know, has worked his way through school as a janitor in public schools, got into a reputable graduate program but yet because of identity theft, has major difficulty purchasing a house, car or whatever. Yet the guy that did the theft and applied for all of this credit simply got a year in jail and a small fine.
If you steal ones identity, are found guilty of such crime, you should become an indentured servant of sorts having a portion of all your earnings being taken for compensation appropriate to the damage you cause. The frustrating thing is that many of these people that go about stealing identities appear to be functioning members of society and for whatever reason see fit to steal a family members, friends, or strangers identity and run up thousands of dollars of false debt.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
What about these privately run prisons that our government is shipping inmates out to? Many of these prisons are using their inmates for labor to be hired out. Mail order catalogs will pay these prisons to have inmates answer the phones and take orders. They prisons are being paid by Uncle Sam to house the inmates, and then they get paid to use them to boot! Because the inmates are incarcerated, they don't have to be paid minimum wage and things like that. My guess is that they are being paid pennies on the dollar. You never know if the guy on the other end of the phone is on the inside, or the outside of the steel bars! :)
"Thank you for calling VISA. My name is Inmate #3041226 and I'll be your friendly operator today. Can I start by getting your credit card information and then the product numbers of those items that you would like to purchase?"
Karma is like sex. I can't remember the last time I had either of them.
One company I worked for routinely posted hundreds of fake job listings in order to locate companies and individuals who might be potential buyers of its product. Even though I don't work there any more I still see their adds from time to time. For example you sell a replacement/competitor to the "widget" tool. You run an add asking for "extensive widget experience". You then review the experience history to find out where the applicant used "widget" at. Those are the companies you direct your sales staff to call on.
Anyways, you'll get alot of e-mails from them on job sites as well.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
This is just another reason to avoid agencies, they truly are a parasitic bunch.
Over here in the UK I was looking for work last year, and scoured the local agencies. Many, many times I'd apply for a position only to be told eventually that it didn't exist. The agency just wanted to know how many Perl Programmers were around.
Worse than that, though, is the way that several agencies will advertise the same position with subtly different descriptions - and you don't realise until you get called for an interview. In one case an agency told me that they wouldn't put me forward for a position I was applying for because I'd also registered with another agency!
I've started keeping track of bad (and the rare good) agencies in Edinburgh - if you're local feel free to look at the list and submit your experiences.
(Yes that was a plug, and yes the section needs updating)
I got my current job because I went to Uni with someone who was already working there; the interview was basically "this is what you have to do. How much would you like?"
Unfortunately, it's not always what you know, it's who you know that gets you a job.
I realize that you can't walk into a large company, get to see a hiring manager, and hand him your resume. Still, you need to get above the noise. Quality employers get THOUSANDS of resumes, mostly junk, for every posting.
So, what I did was get some of those yellow string-fasterner "Interoffice Memo" envelopes at an office supply store. I drove around to the companies I was interested and gave my resume to the receptionist in one of these envelopes marked "HR/Staffing".
My theory was that resumes that got to HR this way would be presumed to be from an employee! While I can't prove the exact reason why this worked better, I can say that I got a response to nearly all resumes I submitted this way! It's worth a try.
Best Buy can have you arrested
If the agencies want CV's they put in fake adverts.
If they want to know contact names for employers, they ask you for references from your last employer.
If anyone advertises a job, everyone else advertises the same spec, only 'nicer' then submits your CV to the first agency without the contact details and asks for a cut.
If they want to know whose hiring they quiz you on any interviews you've attended recently.
In reality the only real jobs come from family and friends who happen to need work done.
I have programmer friends who work in gas stations, as cleaners, shelf stackers and other manual jobs and they're lucky they have those. Competition is tough in the manual labour market aswell.
Dubyas an ass.
According to various newspaper companies, the amount of jobs being listed in the classifieds is the lowest it has been since 1960. It is very bad if you're unemployed currently. I went to a job expo and there were literally tens of thousands of unemployed job seekers for only a few dozen jobs at the most. It was terrible. The energy crisis is definitely not helping the situation either. Pray that things go well in Iraq and that the oil fields are not burned or damaged.
According to NPR if Sadaam burns his own oil fields analysts predict prices will rise to $80 a barrel! This would make gas $4.00 a gallon! This will differently bring the country into a deeper recession rivaling the 1930's and bring tens of more millions of people into the unemployment line competeting with you for any job.
http://saveie6.com/
Don't forget BOSSES! I had the joy of working for a small dotcom with poor management a number of years back, and bailed after six months when our paychecks started showing up late and when I walked into accounting and saw the accountants desk covered in "Past Due!" and "Final Collections Notice!" letters.
A year later, I'd heard they'd gone under and had almost forgotten about them when I tried to refinance my wifes car and was turned down because of poor credit. Poor credit?!?! I'm a homeowner, I have five credit cards, and two car loans, and I had never been so much as a day late in making a payment. I had 10 years of history, and all my balances were low. So what do you think I found when I pulled my 3 agency report? A $1,400+ dollar Pacific Bell phone bill in collections, that went to CarHunting.Com Inc (they can't sue me for slander, the FBI is still trying to track the owner down for defrauding creditors and employees). A call to a couple former employees revealed that the companies phone service had been shut off shortly after I left, and that the owner had used MY name and MY SSN to secure a new account and get them turned back on. Most NORMAL people at that point would think that a simple phone call to the phone company could straighten this out, right? Wrong. It took two years of fighting, and three investigations, before the phone company would finally acknowledge that the bill wasn't mine and remove it from my credit report. Even the notarized affidavits from former employees, and work records showing that I'd been working soemwhere else at the time, weren't enough to convince them that it wasn't my bill. In fact, it wasn't until I hired a lawyer and the lawyer started talking to the FTC and they began talking about lawsuits for FCRA violations that the phone company finally caved and removed the bill.
So the risk soesn't exist only when applying for a job, but during and after your job as well. And it's ALWAYS a pain in the butt to fix this kind of stuff. A simple rule of thumb though, is to ONLY give personally identifiable information (birthdates, SSN's, etc) to companies that you can verify are real and trustworthy. And DON'T work for scum. If a company will screw its customers, it'll probably screw its employees too.
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
What amazes me is the number of people who use Morpheus and Kazaa, and still keep their CV's resumes, reports, documents, cover letters, bank statements, sales figures, visa applications in their shared directories.
:)
(Those are all useful keywords to search for
having been laid off two weeks ago, i was fortunate enough that my employer provided us with a company that helps you with your soft skills - e.g. resume writing, interviewing help, job search tips, some national job database sites, etc.
we were told that approx. 60-80% of jobs are in the 'hidden' market and that roughly 50% of people who find there next job find it via networking. for IT postions we were told roughly 10-15% find their next job listed on sites like monster, careerbuilder, etc.
so while it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, we were instructed how to network, even if you don't know a single person at the firm you are targeting. dealing with HR is one of the best ways to assure yourself you won't find a job.
good luck to all those looking for work!
/* Half alive and half dead too, work is for suckers and the sucker is you. - "Half-life" by Local H*/
So, how many interviews are you looking at?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
As one of the senior engineers where I work, I not only design code, but I look over resumeés that we get in to evaluate technical competence.
I can tell you this - after a headhunter firm gets done with your resumeé, it will look like hammered shit with a side order of pus.
When I've created a resumeé, I laser printed it on high rag content, off white bond with matching envelopes. It was laid out logically, with a proper cover letter. I followed every rule of style, every trick of layout to make my resumeé stand out.
What I've seen from the headhunters were low-rez fuzzy pixelated faxes that looked like the original was laid out by a blind spastic monkey with no comprehension of the English language.
We would pull in a somewhat promising candidate and I'd say "Well, on your resumeé it says you have experience in C++ - " "WHAT? I'm a COBOL programmer - let me see that".
I'd far rather talk to somebody who showed the initiative to send us his resumeé directly than somebody who just sent his CV to a headhunter.
(And yes, I have recommended to my boss that we not use those headhunter firms again.)
www.eFax.com are spammers