Ever been sick and tired of being sick and tired? That’s how I’m feeling right now. I have been bombarded with spammy phone calls and emails concerning fake jobs. This impinges on my valuable time that can be used searching for, and responding to, legitimate jobs. So this month, I am sharing some information to help you sift through, and delete, these time-wasters, and possible phishing attacks.
Fake job posters prey on vulnerable people. They are criminals. Fight back by recognizing how to spot them, starting with this list from Flex Jobs.
In addition, consider these factors:
- “Large Project,” “Weekend, Need by Monday” and “Rush Job”: I always question these labels because they are used to grab the attention of freelancers looking for work. Beware of such jobs. I have heard stories about freelancers giving up their weekends to perform work for which they were never paid.
- Job assignment links from a company you never signed up for: I received two project assignment emails from a supposed translation company. The email contained links to the site to log in and retrieve information about the project. The problem was, I never signed up as a translator with them.
Always Research the Company
Be skeptical. Use complaint sites and reviews from Glass Door, Indeed.com, and even consumer sites such as the Better Business Bureau and Yelp to find out a little more.
Review the company website and use Bing and Google searches to find their location(s). Cross reference the addresses with Mailboxes.com, USPS.com and UPS.com to determine whether the address is actually a mailbox at a mail services provider. Check MapQuest and Google Maps for images of their site(s).
Check the phone number to determine whether it is listed anywhere besides on the company website. Typically, companies will advertise on other sites. This is not always the case but check for it.
Is there any human associated with the company? Is there a LinkedIn profile? There should be several profiles associated with a company. The * here is that small companies and freelancers will only have one or two profiles.
Has anyone in your network, or in the network of those individuals you know, ever worked for the company? Does anyone know anyone who works at the company?
If you are still suspicious about a posting, but the company appears to be legitimate, it is possible that you are being catfished by someone impersonating the legitimate business. Send an email directly to the company email address and telephone them directly. If you do not receive a reply, or if there is no one taking calls for the business (again, this depends on size), consider bypassing the project offer.
Steps to take after identifying a FAKE company
- Share the details with your colleagues.
- Block the phone number
- Mark the email as phishing and block the email address
- Inform the company that is being impersonated
- Get a good antivirus and malware protection application in case you accidentally click a link
- Tweet a screen capture of fake emails @TwoTalkLPS on twitter
Spending a little time up front to research a business may spare you a lot of aggravation later.
So how are you dealing with spammers, phishers and fake jobbers? Let’s share ideas! Contact TwoTalk LPS. Be sure that you don’t add any live URLs or attachments to your email message because such messages will land in the spam folder.
Two Talk LPS Learning, Language & IT Services 
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