Scammers are targeting Arizonans looking for work in the form of fraudulent job listings and spam messages, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes warned in a statement Thursday.
Employment scams are an attempt to steal personal information like birth dates, Social Security numbers and bank account information, Mayes said. The scam might involve a posting for a job that doesn’t exist, or a “recruiter” reaching out to someone directly offering work.
Fraudsters seem to be taking advantage of economic uncertainty by posing as fake employers: reports of employment scams have nearly tripled since 2020, the Federal Trade Commission said. Last year, consumers reported losing $501 million in fake job scams.
Scammers may use legitimate job listing websites like LinkedIn or Indeed to advertise phony job postings, and may impersonate actual companies using their real logo. The fake jobs may promise high salaries for little to no experience, or the opportunity to work from home.
Mayes’ office warned Arizonans to be wary of anything that “looks too good to be true.”
“Identity thieves and scam artists may take advantage of your earnest efforts to find gainful employment,” Mayes said.
In order to avoid employment scams, the Attorney General’s Office urged job seekers to research employers before providing any personal information and to be cautious of any unsolicited job offers, especially from scammers posing as job placement companies or anyone who offers little information about a potential job opening.
If you receive a text, email or call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from a job you didn’t apply to, it’s probably a scam, the FTC said.
Be wary of any advertisement for a job promising to make you rich while working from home on your own schedule, according to the FTC. A common work-from-home scam poses as a personal assistant or quality control manager job, but actually involves receiving packages purchased with stolen credit cards, repacking them, and shipping them to foreign addresses.
Scammers have also been known to post fake ads looking for nannies, caregivers, virtual assistants and mystery shoppers. These scammers may try to steal your personal information, or ask you to deposit a check and send the rest to someone else. The check will bounce and you’ll end up owing the full amount to your bank, while the scammer keeps the money you sent to them.
Before starting a job, Mayes’ office said to request a face-to-face interview with a prospective employer and to ask detailed questions about the job, employer, management and pay structure. Legitimate jobs will never ask you to pay anything before you get hired, or to cash a check for them and forward the funds to a third party. Mayes advised job seekers to be sure a job is legitimate before providing direct deposit information.