West Michigan's Morning News
Phony Job Scams Rising
If you or know somebody who is looking for a job, tell them to be careful job scams have surged and surged a lot. Erin Rial, NBC News Radio, national correspondent on the live line. Erin, thanks for doing this today. Thanks for having me. It says, according to the article, I'm looking at that AI is helping make this easier for scammers. How come? It sure is. They're able to aggregate information better and we know from the Federal Trade Commission that consumers report that job scams have jumped about 118% year over year. These thieves, what they do is they're generally going to pose as recruiters. They're going to post fake job listings. They're doing this to lower in applicants. They then steal really valuable information during the quote unquote interview process. What they want is like your driver's license, your social security, your bank account. That's the treasure trove to them. They also, on a smaller level, they send you an invoice and say, go buy a computer and send us the remaining, whatever it is. That's a red flag. No one's doing that. Like, really no one is doing that. So, it's sad, it's scary. I think it's particularly sad for young people who have had very little to know experience in the job market or finding a job, actually know a young man who just graduated college and felt they've done to one of these and they're posting on reputable job sites. You'll see these on LinkedIn and other job platforms that are absolutely legit, but the postings themselves are not. How awful. I mean, the time that we live in right now where, you know, they just feed on, I realize the desperation. But, I mean, so many different paths that you have to be careful for, whether it's someone older in your family or someone younger, like you said, just getting excited to start their career. Exactly. And, I mean, it is sad, it is really sad. I actually said it's for a long time. I think your early 20s when you graduate college everyone is like, "Oh, time you're like, I don't know about that." Right. Or, would the job, like, either your entry, like, I think that people that age need, I know that they're not supposed to have handholding. The whole point is they're ready to fly. But I think, like, just compassion, not handholding, but just like understanding that this is, you'll get through it. It'll be okay, but there are these strange things that get thrown at you during that portion of your life. But keep an eye out for folks that you know and love in their early 20s because this is just one example of many, many more of scams that are now preying on these young folks because while they are digital native, so it's easier to go after older people for anything that's basically not digital native, you know, other scams. The fact of the matter is they do have very little life experience in terms of their professional life experience. So, they are ripe for the picking. Get cynical quick. That's what I say. Exactly. No. Erin Rial, NBC News Radio, national correspondent. Thank you. Thanks, guys.