WASHINGTON – After a series of interviews, Ms Nicole Becker was ecstatic to receive a job offer from a sportswear brand. But like many Americans navigating a tough job market, she was soon confronted with a sobering reality \u2013 the recruiter was a scammer.<\/p>\n
From fake job listings to fraudsters posing as real recruiters, employment scams are exploding online \u2013 fuelled by a cooling labour market and a boom in generative AI (Gen AI) that experts say has made these schemes more sophisticated than ever. <\/p>\n
In July, a purported Chinese brand offered Ms Becker \u2013 a 37-year-old based in Oregon \u2013 a coveted role to lead global communications after an elaborate and legitimate-looking recruitment process that stretched over two weeks.<\/p>\n
There were no red flags after an initial online interview with a supposed human resources official was followed by a call with someone calling himself the head of marketing and sales.<\/p>\n
Then came the offer letter, accompanied by a detailed PowerPoint deck outlining her assigned role, budget, and performance targets for the first six months. Both parties promptly signed the agreement.<\/p>\n
But a week later, during an onboarding meeting, Ms Becker picked up the first hint that something was amiss.<\/p>\n
She was told that the company\u2019s servers had been destroyed in California\u2019s wildfires. As a result, she would have to purchase a laptop and cellphone from a designated retailer herself, with the promise of reimbursement in her first pay cheque.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when my heart sank and I was like, \u2018oh no, I fell for a fake job,\u2019\u201d Ms Becker told AFP, requesting that her real name be withheld.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is so scary because I consider myself to be a smart and clued-in person, especially with what\u2019s going on with AI and scams in general. If I can get scammed, I feel this can happen to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Employment-related scams jumped by over 1,000 per cent from May through July, a period when new graduates typically search for jobs, according to the US firm McAfee.<\/p>\n
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans report receiving job offer scams via text message, highlighting how \u201cthese schemes have moved beyond email into our daily conversations\u201d, McAfee said.<\/p>\n
The firm\u2019s research shows victims lost an average of US$1,471 (S$1,900) per scam, with US$12 billion reported lost to fraud last year, a 21 per cent increase compared with the previous year. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a perfect storm of factors \u2013 a tight labour market, where more people are urgently competing for fewer opportunities, is creating pressure that scammers exploit,\u201d Ms Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, Gen AI has made it easier for bad actors to craft convincing fake postings, recruiter profiles, and even interview scripts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combination means scams are harder to spot, and job seekers, especially first-time applicants, are more vulnerable than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Becker\u2019s experience \u2013 who immediately ceased all communication with the scammers \u2013 illustrates a common scam tactic: fraudsters run a long con, counting on job seekers to let their guard down after clearing a few hurdles in the interview process.<\/p>\n
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently warned consumers about \u201cfake cheque scams\u201d, in which fraudsters pose as employers and send counterfeit cheques, instructing victims to purchase equipment from selected vendors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you get an offer that includes depositing a cheque and then using some of the money for any reason, that\u2019s a scam. Walk away,\u201d the FTC said.<\/p>\n
Employers are also frequently targeted by scams.<\/p>\n
In July, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned about North Korean scammers posing as Americans to \u201cgain fraudulent employment and access to US company networks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Further complicating the hiring landscape is the rapid advancement of AI tools, which have made virtual interviews increasingly prone to deception.<\/p>\n
A recent survey of 3,000 job candidates conducted by the American firm Gartner found that six per cent admitted to engaging in interview fraud \u2013 either by impersonating someone else or having someone pose as them.<\/p>\n
The firm estimates that by 2028, one in four candidate profiles worldwide will be fake.<\/p>\n
In response, some companies that initially adopted AI tools to streamline hiring are now reintroducing face-to-face interviews at various stages of the recruitment process to safeguard against fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting harder for employers to evaluate candidates\u2019 true abilities, and in some cases, their identities. Employers are increasingly concerned about candidate fraud,\u201d said Gartner\u2019s Jamie Kohn.<\/p>\n
Such scams create \u201ccybersecurity risks that can be far more serious than making a bad hire\u201d. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON – After a series of interviews, Ms Nicole Becker was ecstatic to receive a job offer from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[84,1371,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-181288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-business","tag-jobs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}