Employment fraud is increasingly on the rise and it’s important you know how to spot the signs!
What is employment fraud?
Employment fraud is when scammers and fraudsters contact you posing to be a recruitment agent or agency and offer you the chance of employment. More and more, fraudsters are stealing the identify of established recruitment agencies and using their brands in their outreach, making it appear legitimate and harder to detect fraudulent activity.
Employment fraud comes in many different shapes and sizes, but here are some examples of how it could occur:
• Being asked to pay for DBS checks or other employment checks.
• Being asked to pay upfront for travel / accommodation / relocation costs.
• Being asked for personal details that aren’t relevant to the job seeking process.
The gov.uk website released come guidance on how to spot signs of job scams and employment fraud:
• Poorly written job adverts
• Suspicious contact details
• Unrealistic salary
• A job offer without an interview
• Being asked for money before starting a job
• Illegitimate companies or email addresses
• UK domains
Certainly in the UK employment market, it’s incredibly unlikely that any recruitment agency, especially those accredited by The Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC), would offer you a potential job with no phone calls, no interviews or virtual-video screening.
Our practises
At Jo Holdsworth Recruitment we only make contact with you through means where consent has been provided. For example, if you have contacted us directly, applied for an active vacancy or are actively registered on a job board we partner with and you have given consent to the job board for your details to be visible to recruitment agencies.
Under no circumstances would we make initial contact via WhatsApp. At no point during your journey with us would you be asked to part with your own funds. Our support and services to job seekers are completely free and we cover the costs associated with securing new employment for you.
Our website and LinkedIn profile are kept up to date with our current employees for reference.
If you have received any suspicious communication we would strongly encourage you not to engage or respond, not to provide any personal data and not to part with any of your money.
Please call or email our team for clarification on any attempts of contact if you’re unsure, we’d be happy to help.
How to report
If you believe you have fallen victim to an employment scam or any other cyber crime, you can report it to: www.actionfraud.police.uk
