IT’S a newer type of scam than 419 fraud and often targets individuals desperate for a better life. The scam begins with an e-mail that offers a job. An example of one of these fraudulent e-mails circulating through the Kingdom’s inboxes right now is supposedly from the UK’s Abbey National Bank.
The e-mail advises the recipient that the bank has a long list of positions on offer from Customer Service Adviser to Lab Technician. All that’s required to apply for one of these jobs is to submit a CV or relevant biodata and specify which job is desired. Once the personnel manager at Abbey National reviews the information, they’ll get back to you.
The e-mail looks as though it really could have come from Abbey National. It even has a logo at the top of the mail and a confidentiality statement in the footer. There are no errors in the text. Full contact details of Bob Williams, the Abbey Recruitment Services Coordinator are provided. But the telephone numbers are out of service and the reply-to address on the e-mail is [email protected]. This is not an address that the real Abbey National Bank would use.
These job scams are really attempts at identity theft. You should never provide anyone you don’t know with personal information for any reason.
If you post a resume online it should be “cybersafe” which means that it doesn’t contain a full name, home address, date of birth or national identity number. Resumes posted at job sites should be “identity-suppressed” and set up an anonymous e-mail address to be used only for receipt potential job offers.
Job scams have become such a huge problem that the World Privacy Forum has set up a page offering information about them and how to avoid them.
Check it out at www.worldprivacyforum.org/jobscams.html.