How to stop tech savvy millennials from falling for job scams

Representational image (Photo: Jeshoots via Unsplash)

Twenty-two-year-old Callie Heim got the shock of her life when she found out that the job she had applied for on LinkedIn using the "Easy Apply" feature was fake. Heim shared her experience in a series of TikTok videos. When we think of job scams, we wouldn’t exactly expect the Gen-Z and millennials who are tech savvy and up-to-date with the latest trends to fall prey to it. To top it off, Heim applied for the job on LinkedIn, a genuine job portal and had a perfectly normal interview process. Things went south when the scammer who was pretending to be a recruiter asked her for money in exchange for a cheque. Heim found out moments before transferring the amount that the cheque, which seemed legitimate to her, was cleverly photoshopped.

We are all familiar with the basics of how to identify a job scam but it’s 2022 and scammers are coming up with newer ways to dupe job seekers. Why exactly is this happening?

Remote hiring: A boon for scammers

Experts believe that millennials and Gen Z are prone to such scams because post-Covid, the hiring and even the onboarding process in some companies are completely virtual. Vivek Mani Tripathi, vice-president, Human Resources at Newgen Software, says, “It is easier to be misled when the selection process is mostly virtual, with the candidate not visiting the office or meeting any senior leaders face to face.” Manish Sinha, SVP and CHRO, automotive business, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, feels this isn’t the case. “It may not be the increase in digital hiring that has enabled scammers to defraud more people, but the sheer increase in the number of people desperately seeking out job opportunities,” Sinha says.

There have also been some concerns that the lack of digital penetration in tier-II and -III cities could also be one of the reasons behind the increase in job scams. When asked about the same, Newgen’s Tripathi said, the lack of employment opportunities and desperation for jobs makes candidates in smaller cities pay the scammers large sums of money. Sinha is on the same page as Tripathi on this. He says, “Inability to double-check on indicators such as mail trail, paperwork and differentiating between fake and genuine offers could be a reason behind the increase in job scams in smaller towns.”

When brands take a hit

Much of the discourse around job scams is around candidates and job seekers. However, the brands, especially the big MNCs also suffer due to job scams. ​Ramani Ganesh, senior vice-president, human resources, Hirect India, says “The consequences of these scams can be devastating for the employers as they lose their time, money, and reputation.” Ganesh spoke at length on how such scams end up damaging a company’s reputation. “Not only do these scams make it difficult to find qualified candidates, but they also damage the company's image. Potential employees, who are targeted by these scams will, be less likely to trust the company, even if they are eventually offered a job,” she says. Ganesh also believes that job scams hinder a company’s ability to attract better talent.

Fighting scams with awareness
Sinha believes that sending regular scam alerts and notifications to spread awareness about employment fraud might help deal with the menace. “It is a must to keep sharing information with people across various mediums to make them aware of transparent hiring protocols,” he says. Tripathi adds, “Organisations need to be vigilant by taking the necessary steps to map the selection process and set rigorous checks in place.”

Ganesh, on the other hand, suggests having a dedicated department of experts who deal with such fraudulent cases. “This department would be responsible for verifying the legitimacy of job postings and websites. They would also provide information on how to avoid job scams and what to do if you have been a victim of a job scam,” she says. Since Hirect is a job portal where openings are posted by recruiters, Ganesh says, Hirect is extra careful with verifying the job postings. “We have a dedicated department that ensures the jobs posted on the platform are genuine; the platform leverages a new-age algorithm to verify the authenticity of the recruiters and their jobs,” she says, adding, the algorithm checks for the inconsistencies and questionable job postings and flags them to their team of experts for review.

How tech experts fight job scams
A new way in which scammers target job seekers is by sending emails with links which are a slight variation of URLs of the company’s official website. Once the candidate clicks on the link, s/he is redirected to a phishing page which looks genuine but is fake. The job seeker shares confidential information on the portal and ends up getting scammed. Irshadh A Rasheed, cybersecurity partner, EY India, advises companies to use brand monitoring services. These services monitor if a URL similar to the URL of the company’s official website has been registered and reports them to the company.

Some scammers send emails which have different display names and addresses. For example, if Tarun Arora is a verified recruiter of a company, they would send an email with "Tarun Arora" as the display name but the email address would be different. Pankit Desai, co-founder and CEO, Sequretek, says, using an anti-virus or a spam detection tool which filters emails and whitelists them or flags them as suspicious if the display name and address do not match.

Many scammers also use LinkedIn to target job seekers. They use legitimate names and display pictures to post openings but the profile itself is fake. Rasheed says, “It is the responsibility of the organization to identify such fraudulent LinkedIn profiles and take them down before it becomes a serious concern.” Desai recommends checking multiple portals for openings before applying for a job on LinkedIn. “Most companies post job offers on multiple places — their job sections, various job portals, so it is better to check first,” he adds. Both Rasheed and Desai say, the biggest red flag is asking for money because organisations do not ask for money before hiring.

Desai adds, scammers usually prey on people who are desperate for jobs. “You are clutching at the straws and that is what the scammers take advantage of. This is called a social engineering attack and it works off the human psyche. The scammers actually use your desperation and your fear of missing out on the offer when you are at your most vulnerable against you,” he says. It is always better to suspect a scam if an offer is too good to be true. “A bit of scepticism will actually go a long way,” Desai says.