Watch Out for Job Scams on Facebook

Over the past few months, we have become aware of a number of job seekers getting caught up in various job scams on Facebook. As far as we have been able to tell, people are utilizing Facebook group chats to approach job seekers claiming to be hiring for NPAworldwide. The “jobs” include anything from housekeeping to customer service to unspecified “work from home opportunities” to travel nurses and more. None of them are legitimate.

NPAworldwide is a member-owned network of professional, independent recruitment firms. We are not directly in the business of hiring. Our members share candidates and job openings with each other. They also recruit directly. Each member firm operates their own independent business. When they approach job seekers, they use their own business name (not NPAworldwide). Disclosure of the hiring company’s name generally happens when an interview is arranged. The vast majority of the placements made in our network are direct-hire professional roles that require university degrees or post-secondary education and training.

Unfortunately, job scams on Facebook (and other places) are increasing. Please take every precaution if you are approached in this manner and do not ever share any personal or private information. In my experience, it has been fairly obvious that the profile of the person claiming to be working for us, is not an authentic profile. They are usually very recently created, have no friends or followers, no posts, and nothing anywhere that describes who they are or what they do.

Here are a few more red flags:

• The person is not using a company email
• The email address has misspelled words in it
• The person asks for money or wants to send you a check
• The person does not want to communicate through traditional channels
• The person asks you to download software
• The person asks for photos of your identification card
• The job seems too good to be true

Professional recruiters, including NPAworldwide members, use a variety of methods to find and engage with candidates, which may include social media. However, once they have made contact, they will likely want to pursue further conversation through more traditional methods like telephone or email. Most recruiters also have a searchable profile on LinkedIn. It’s always a good idea to see if the person’s name and company appear together in a Google search. Being mindful of these red flags will help you avoid job scams on Facebook.