Online job scams are on the rise, costing Americans millions, with younger generations most affected.
HOUSTON — Scams linked to online job listings are skyrocketing. According to the Federal Trade Commission, it is costing Americans hundreds of millions of dollars. The FTC reports that millennials and Generation Z are the most vulnerable.
Amber Sprunger, a millennial living in the Houston area, recently came across a post on ZipRecruiter for an office clerk position.
“I had received an email after putting my information in one day that showed a job posting with PepsiCo for $35 to $44 an hour, obviously the pay. That’s going to get anybody,” Sprunger said.
So, she applied.
“I received an email the very next day from their hiring manager, and it said, hey, just, you know, click one of these links to make sure your credit’s good with us. It needed my card information, my home address, and the CVC number on the back. It needed pretty much everything. It had already asked for my social security number,” Sprunger said.
But convinced the listing was legitimate, Sprunger followed through with the request.
“I did research on this one. I saw that PepsiCo existed in Cleveland. I saw that there was an opening. The words may not have been the same for the position, but they offered almost the exact thing, so I was like, OK, so it, it seems legit,” Sprunger said.
Jon Clay, vice president of Threat Intelligence at Trend Micro, said scammers are getting slyer, using artificial intelligence to prey on their victims by building realistic websites, conducting fake interviews and crafting messages that mirror legitimate hiring processes.
“They may have interviews with them. They may do all of that kind of stuff, all to try to get information from them, personal information, and or to scam them out of money,” Clay said.
According to the FTC, victims lost $220 million in just the first half of 2024, and the victims are typically younger.
“Those folks are all very technology embracing and that’s what the scammers look for is people who will utilize LinkedIn, they’ll utilize social media, they’ll utilize text messaging, and that just plays into their hands,” Clay said.
Clay said law enforcement agencies and partners, and cybersecurity companies like Micro Trends, work to combat scammers, but consumers also play a role.
“People are going to have to do their due diligence. They can’t just trust everything they see online, everything they hear online. You know, it’s going to be a challenge for them. I do recommend people embrace technology, because you’re as a human, your ears and eyes are going to fool you with this stuff because ai is creating web pages and it’s creating voices and, and video that are extremely real, very difficult to determine if it’s a real person or a fake person,” Clay said.
In Sprunger’s case, she said she realized the job post was a fraud after she backtracked and spotted a grammatical error.
“It was saying ‘after complete first step. We’ll be in touch with you,’ instead of ‘after you complete the first step.’ My mind was like, wait a second. I was livid,” Sprunger said.
Sprunger said she reported the incident to her bank, all three credit reporting agencies, and to the FTC.
The ad has been removed from the ZipRecruiter website.
So, how do you spot a fake job listing? Clay suggested looking for three red flags:
- Unsolicited jobs or hiring options through text or social media
- Jobs offering an outrageous salary
- Any inquiry that asks for money, whether that be for a background check or supplies about the job