{"id":115533,"date":"2025-05-19T23:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/115533\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T23:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T23:06:16","slug":"watch-out-for-job-scams-how-to-protect-yourself-in-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/115533\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch out for job scams: How to protect yourself in Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a boom time for employment scammers amid steep cuts to the federal workforce<\/a> that already threaten to impact Maryland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Job scams, which often use fake job postings and other strategies to extract personal information and money from unsuspecting victims, are among the most common and financially damaging schemes, according to the Better Business Bureau, which has collected reports<\/a> of nearly $5 million in losses to these scams over the past five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminal syndicates watch the news as much as anybody,\u201d said Tracy Rezvani, the administrator of Howard County\u2019s Office of Consumer Protection. <\/b><\/p>\n

While job scams are perennial, there\u2019s been a significant uptick, Rezvani said. <\/b>\u201cIt\u2019s my belief that it\u2019s because there are so many people in the job market right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Here are some tips to avoid job scams, and what to do if you get ensnared in one.<\/p>\n

Do your research<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for jobs online, be skeptical of listings you find on social media and cross-check with the company\u2019s official website. It\u2019s common for scammers to imitate legitimate companies, so if a job posting doesn\u2019t link back to a company website, look up the business online and see if the job is really listed as available on the careers page, said Clay Campbell, the director of marketing for the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland.<\/p>\n

Work-from-home scams have become common since the COVID-19 pandemic, offering jobs that sound low-effort and appear to pay well. If a job offer is vague or the pay seems too high for the workload, that\u2019s a red flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere it\u2019s really easy sounding money, it\u2019s never the case,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also common advice to look for typos and grammatical errors in job listings, but Campbell said artificial intelligence has made it increasingly easy to make realistic-looking job postings without these giveaways. <\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re unsure, you can also look up the company\u2019s contact information on a website like the BBB<\/a> and call to confirm whether the job or recruiter is legitimate.<\/p>\n

Be wary of unsolicited outreach<\/p>\n

Use caution if you\u2019re approached by an unknown job recruiter, Rezvani said. Job offers made over text message, and especially texts that come from an email address, are especially suspect.<\/p>\n

Scammers can also use job sites, like LinkedIn and Indeed, to find people who are looking for work and might be vulnerable to a scam offer.<\/p>\n

Armed with information about a particular job seeker, fraudsters can go from a broad \u201cphishing\u201d scheme directed at anyone who might click a link to a \u201cspear phishing\u201d attack aimed at a specific person, Rezvani said.<\/p>\n

A common thread among job scam victims is that their communication with the scammer just didn\u2019t feel quite right, she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you get an interview and it\u2019s short, perfunctory, anything that seems like it\u2019s just \u2018off,\u2019 that\u2019s a common element,\u201d Rezvani said.<\/p>\n

Scammers will also use emotion to get you to move quickly, Campbell said. If someone is pushing you to act fast on a job you\u2019re unsure about, that could be a warning sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are new on the job scene or you\u2019ve been let go and you\u2019re anxious to find a new career path or job, it\u2019s all about trusting your instinct and not feeling rushed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Be careful with your personal information<\/p>\n

Just like any other scam, employment scammers are going after your money or personal information, said Karen Straughn, an assistant Maryland attorney general who works in the Consumer Protection Division.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common for scammers to tell job seekers they need to purchase equipment or hand over bank information; they might also send you money and ask you to send it back or to a third person.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese are all warning signs,\u201d Straughn said.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the middle of a job interview and realize you\u2019re being scammed, end the conversation and make a report to the Federal Trade Commission<\/a>. The FTC also offers an identity theft checklist<\/a> \u2014 if you have already given away personal information to a suspected scammer, it\u2019s important to follow those steps, including changing passwords and checking your credit reports for unauthorized activity. <\/p>\n

If you lost money, you can make a report<\/a> to the FBI.<\/p>\n

You can also call the Maryland Attorney General\u2019s consumer hotline at 410-528-8662, Straughn said, to get help determining if a job posting is suspicious or legitimate. The hotline is available on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a boom time for employment scammers amid steep cuts to the federal workforce that already threaten to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[51,897,52067,52068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-115533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-linear","11":"tag-phising","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114537011220526669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}