Alert: Phishing scam offers chefs jobs with advance relocation or "good will" payment.
The recession has given rise to some creative thinking on the job/jobless market. Con artists, who have always known the people in more pressing need make the best marks, have now identified job seekers as good targets.
How it works:
You answer an ad or job posting by sending your resume. Alternatively you post your resume on an open web site. Some time later – it could be days or even months – you receive an email or a phone call from someone who states that they have seen your resume and want to hire you for a job in California or some other distant location. In order to prove their good will and to secure you for the job, they will send you a check for $500 up front. Or they may offer to send you a check for a flight or relocation. You simply need to fill out the paper work.
- This is a devilishly clever “phishing” scam, not a job offer. The clues are:
- You have not interviewed for the job, or had only a precursory discussion with the person claiming to wish to hire you.
- Those who have received these “offers” report that the spoken and written English of the contact person was poor.
- The Email will have a “cut and paste” appearance. There will be no signature and no header. The presentation reported is very unprofessional. (Which doesn’t mean that professional presentation is reliable).
- You may be told that you have already spoken to the contact. (Hi, do you remember me?)
- The email probably has no header or footer.
- The email address will not be attached to a company URL, for instance johnj@jonesbusiness.com or info@burgerbunnies.com but rather shows a business name at a hotmail or gmail address. This alone is not a sure sign of fraud, since some businesses opt to use a separate address for recruiting purposes.
- You will be asked for information you would otherwise be reluctant to provide: Copy of your passport, Social Security number.
- The “recruiter” or restaurant will not have a web site.
- There is no formal job offer, which should include the terms of employment, the salary, location, job description, benefits, etc.
- You are asked to provide information before you are officially hired.
- The proposed compensation exceeds what you would usually expect. Con artists work very well with greed.
If you fall for the scam, the “head hunter” or the supposed new employer will soon own your identity. It’s easy enough to keep safe:
- Confirm the identity of the companies you are dealing with by checking their web site and comparing any names or numbers given. This goes for recruiters as well as restaurants.
- Be cautious about putting your resume up on the web. Use a separate email and keep track of the locations where it is placed.
- Be wary of calls based on a downloaded resume rather than a contact initiated by you. It appears, however, that some candidate initiated contacts (via Craigslist, for example)
- You will never be hired for a job with relocation without an on site interview and generally a tasting, if you are a chef. (There are exceptions here for people working at top locations, but you will know who you are speaking with if that happens.)
- You never give out your Social Security or bank account number until you have been hired. The I-9 forms required are usually filled out on site or after you have visited the site.
- If you are doubt, tell the person that you would gladly look at the distant property (these are all somewhere else) if they fly you out. You do not need to give passport or drivers license numbers for flights in the US.
- You should keep all of your private information private. Recruiters (real ones) will want to know where you live, so that they can pull up your resume for jobs in your area, but you needn’t put your full address, etc on the resume. It’s also wiser to use a cell phone than your home line for job related conversations, so someone else in your family does not slip and provide the information.
- Keep records of all of the contacts you have accrued during your job hunt. Make sure you have a land based business call back number for the person you have been speaking with. (Real businesses still have land lines).
- Any time you have doubts regarding the authenticity of a phone number, spend a couple of dollars on 411 to confirm that the number given is in fact the number of the business.
- Ask the contact where he got your information.
- Be enormously wary of vague answers, lack of information.
- If you can identify the source of your information, report the incident. If you feel that you have the victim of such an action, call your local District Attorney's office, bank and credit card companies immediately to begin to take steps to protect your identity and your money.
Caveat: We at Chefs’ Professional Agency are sometimes forced to play with our cards very close to our vest, but we always identify ourselves (although we block our phone number, so pandemonium doesn’t break out among the staff when the hostess sees our name). Being polite and non confrontational even when dubious is a generally the best policy.
The best of luck. Hunt safely.