Jobseekers Warned of Recruitment Scams on LinkedIn

A surge in recruitment scams targeting jobseekers on professional networking sites has prompted warnings from authorities and recruiters. The scams often involve fake job ads, cloned profiles, and offers to help with CV writing for a fee.

Tony Young, a former tech executive, is among many Australians who have fallen victim to these scams. He applied for over 400 jobs in the past three years and was contacted by someone claiming to be a consultant who could help improve his resume.

“That quickly turned into a conversation where the person was saying ‘your resume is not quite a good fit for this but I can do this for you and it’s going to cost $1,000’.

When he refused, the “consultant” quickly lowered their offer and asked Tony whether he would “do it for $50”.

A Rise in Sophisticated Employment Fraud

There has been an observed increase in sophisticated employment fraud targeting jobseekers as soon as they update their online status to indicate they are looking for work. This includes fake job ads and fraudsters posing as recruiters with cloned profiles.

Australian jobseekers are being warned about this pervasive, sophisticated employment fraud as recruiters voice concerns about fake advertisements flooding recruitment websites.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported 138 scam reports relating to LinkedIn in just two months, with reported losses of up to $254,449.

Fake Ads and Recruiters

Tony said he often received emails or comments on his online posts that seemed to be from companies purporting to be “hiring” on LinkedIn.

In June, he received an email from a so-called “career and talent leader” at engineering consultancy Aurecon who wanted to have a “senior leadership discussion” with him.

Aurecon said it was aware that fraudsters sometimes misused its brand name to deceive jobseekers through fake job emails, fraudulent websites or unsolicited job offers.

The company stressed that it conducts formal virtual or in-person interviews before making offers and would never ask candidates to make any up-front payments.

Job Search Safety Concerns

LinkedIn’s latest Job Search Safety Pulse report found Australians are more vulnerable to recruitment scams than ever.

Nearly half of the people surveyed said they would take risks when applying for jobs due to ongoing cost-of-living pressures.

More than a third said they would be more likely to let their guard down.

Questioning whether a job is “actually real” has also become a routine part of the job search, according to the LinkedIn report.

The same report found 61 per cent of Australians had seen a job ad that they suspected was fraudulent and 27 per cent have come close to falling for one.

Around 16 per cent of the respondents said they had fallen victim to job scams.

Warning Signs of Recruitment Scams

“Recruitment scammers often pretend to represent large companies or recruitment firms and will contact people either directly through LinkedIn or via email with a job opportunity that is tailored to the information on their LinkedIn profile,” an ACCC spokesperson said.

“Job scams may ask people to pay money to start a job” or participate in a “course or training”.

Tech recruiter Trevor Churchley said scam activities on LinkedIn had become more noticeable in the past two years.

He said the fake profiles were then used to target jobseekers who publicly disclosed they were unemployed.

“They’re the perfect target to approach because … all of a sudden, they gain the attention of recruiters … hopefully leading to jobs,” Mr Churchley said.

“This is a scam designed to exploit jobseekers.”

Protecting Yourself from Scams

Mr Churchley warned of red flags including recruiters based in unusual locations and having no followers or connections.

He said they were not easy for genuine jobseekers to spot as they are often desperate for work.

A spokesperson from LinkedIn said “scams of any kind are against our policies” and the company takes “proactive action to detect and remove” the majority of spam and scam content on its website automatically.

“We’re continuing our investment in free verifications for identities, jobs, recruiters and company pages to provide trust signals about the people and opportunities on LinkedIn,” the spokesperson said.

Ryan Ko, director of the Cyber Research Centre at the University of Queensland, said resumes often contained far more personal information than people realised.

“Beyond names, phone numbers and email addresses, it can reveal employment history, education, professional networks, locations, certifications and even government security clearances,” he said.

“Scammers can use this information to build detailed profiles of individuals, making phishing emails, fake job offers and identity fraud attempts far more convincing.”

After securing a six-month full-time contract, Tony is finally able to wrap up his job hunting journey — for now.

“It is a relief to at least be able to close out the calendar year in role and get back to actually contributing,” he said.