Keep your life details safe online!

As the number of unemployed individuals rises, scammers are becoming proactive and targeting those who are keen to get back into work.

Bogus recruitment agencies make calls to unsuspecting individuals saying they have a suitable vacancy with an organisation, but that the individual needs to ‘revamp’ his or her CV before being offered the job. Coincidentally, they explain that an arm of their business offers CV writing services. This way the individual parts with money.

Genuine recruitment agencies will never ask you to pay before getting a job as they are paid a commission by the recruiting organisation. You should never respond to bogus ‘job’ emails from individuals who don’t have a legitimate email address, working telephone number or office address. For example, you receive an email from an individual offering you a job with great salary prospects based on the condition that you initially provide your personal details (including your bank account).

Identity theft is another major motive for bogus agencies. Your name, address, date of birth, contact details, education background and employment history etc., which are available on your CV can make you vulnerable to identity theft. According to CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, 27,000 people were affected by identity fraud in the first quarter of 2010. It is advisable that you only include your name, telephone number and email address on your CV. Genuine social networking sites are also not immune from scammers who can set up an online profile and pose as someone else in order to have access to people’s personal details.

Things to note:

1. Don’t apply for jobs where the agency name is hidden. If you can view the agency name, run an internet search and type ‘scam’ next to the  agency name in a search engine to see what results come back. If the agency is a scam, the most common search results will be forum discussions from victims warning others about the agency.
2. Don’t be fooled by ridiculous work from home opportunities or bogus travel/vacation prizes.
3. Don’t respond to appeals for cash from strangers via email as this lets hackers know that your email account is live which will mean that you will be targeted even more with these kinds of emails.
4. Don’t send money to anyone you meet on social networking or dating sites.
5. Don’t put your personal details on online networking sites. Identity thieves can use your personal information to obtain loans in your name and you could get a bad credit history.
6. Don’t accept social networking ‘friends’ requests from people that you don’t recognise. They can steal your identity especially if you post a lot of personal information about yourself. Responding to fake messages or friend requests from social networking sites may give scammers access to your account. They could lock you out and send viruses to your friends.
7. Don’t forget to keep your privacy settings tight and put very minimum information on your profile page.