Looking for a job can be a job in and of itself. You might spend hours a day or week applying for jobs and to make the process longer you have to sift through all the job scams out there. You could save yourself so much time and worry if you knew how to detect a job scam from a verified posting. If a posting has any of these qualities just move on in your search: get-rich-quick schemes, work-at-home scams, pyramid schemes, no experience is necessary, etc.

Here are some tips to help you spot any red flags in a job post:

  1. There isn’t a company name in the ad.

According to USD Career blog, “blind ads can be used to gather personal information about individuals as part of an identity theft scheme.” A lot of times company simply prefers to keep the name of their company confidential until they reach out to candidates of interest to them. Keep in mind there is a huge difference between writing a brief description about the company; for example, “luxury fashion brand” vs. completely neglecting to mention a name.

  1. The e-mail address ends in @yahoo, @gmail, @hotmail, etc.

You might be thinking “well some start-ups do not have company email accounts” and you are correct. Research the company and if this is not the case be cautious.

  1. The person of contact cannot be found through a simple Google search.

If you can’t find the company through a Google search or on LinkedIn it is best keep on moving in your job search.

  1. They offer you the job within 24 hours of sending your application.

It is easy to get excited at an immediate job offer, but this is a HUGE red flag. Take a second to think about this situation. A company needs time to review incoming emails, perhaps show resumes to respective departments, set up interview times and generally there is more than one interview in the process.

  1. They want to pay you before you even start working.

Just stop there. This is a classic scam to get into people’s bank accounts.

  1. “Work at home” appears in the header.

This is not a job titles so why would this be a header? If this is stated in the job description that is one thing, but a red flag should fly up when this is the header.

 

When it doubt follow this rule of thumb: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”