
One of the problems that I have, and probably others, is that it is difficult to tell legit recruiters from scammers.
Here is what we experience as candidates. A “recruiter” might send you an email/text and you don’t know them from Adam. It doesn’t matter that they have a website, because those are easy to fake. It doesn’t matter if they show up on LinkedIn, because LinkedIn profiles are sold. It doesn’t matter if their number doesn’t come up with a web search, because legitimate companies block numbers for privacy and security reasons.
So we have to evaluate each person based on what they are showing us. We can’t trust the email sender. We know that can be hacked. Plenty of recruiters here have shared that they have been impersonated by scammers to try to defraud people. For all you know, a legitimate recruiter’s email has been hacked and you are talking to a scammer.
Therefore when we talk to people we can’t verify there is a ton of trust on the candidate’s side. Recruiters have more security because they see a phone number, they can verify your address easily, and additionally, there are steps you can take on your LinkedIn profile to create more trust. I did that by adding the CLEAR confirmation which required showing a third party my driver’s license and identifying information. Plus candidates do a background check, supply an SSN, and often get fingerprinted depending on the industry, and it is clear the risk to recruiters is not the same for fraud.
Now put yourself in a candidate’s place and you receive a text/email from someone you don’t know. It may look legit, but you don’t know. What this means is that the cost of missing an opportunity is high if people are desperate, so they tend to give recruiters more trust they they deserve. Now sorry if that makes you upset recruiters, but I am being honest here. Mentally people can either trust everyone who seems to be a recruiter or be suspicious. It is easier to trust, and so that’s why employment scams like my last post with HustleWing happen.
Regularly I get emails/texts that tell me that there is a high-paying job they only need personal information like all of my personal information, SS number, date that I went to high school. This is a clear way to enable identity theft. You don’t get that over unsecured email/text. If part of the job process and after I am offered the job, they want to confirm my SS number or so on then we are talking. There is no need to have a person’s SS number to give an interview, or to start a process that isn’t government-related.
I will not pursue government jobs, so I don’t need to provide that level of detail. I have no problem sharing reasonable requests for information, but some recruiters go past what is legal and necessary. As Nancy Reagan said, “Just say no”.