Protect Yourself from Fraudulent Job Listings

Keep these red flags in mind when searching for jobs online and in initial steps of the recruitment process.

Changing careers can be stressful enough without having to sift through faulty job listings. At NYFA, we do our best to exclude falsely advertised jobs from our Classifieds board, but these listings do appear from time to time. We’ve gathered a list of red flags based on our experiences, that could potentially indicate a job is fraudulent.

Red Flags

• Potential employer asks you to pay for something – since there are very few cases where it makes sense to provide credit card or bank information, this is a red flag.
• Repeated spelling and grammatical errors in listing or correspondence.
• Potential employer asks you to provide your social security number – again, asking for highly personal information in initial steps of the application process can be a red flag.
• Correspondence is slow and not thorough – while this is not always a sign of a scam, most employers are looking to hire in a timely manner.
• They want to send money to you – if you are asked to receive a sum of money, this is not a good sign and may indicate a scam.
• Physical address provided does not match up with the company address.  
• If the listing sounds too good to be true, there’s a good chance that it is.

Preventative Measures

• Google their email address and company – make sure things line up.
• Ex. If the company uses email addresses that end in “.com” and the email provided to you is “.org”
• If you cannot find the name of your contact at the company when you Google it, this may be a bad sign.
• Are they on LinkedIn?
• Glassdoor?
• Does the interview process on Glassdoor sound like your experience?
• Generally researching the company to be sure things line up with the job you’re applying for can only help to better prepare you for interviews, and also avoid scams.

If you notice a listing that seems suspicious, report it! You are encouraged to send any concerns to [email protected]. Have you interacted with a fraudulent advertiser in the past? Please share your experiences with us so that we can continue to spot red flags and avoid scam listings!

Best of luck with your job search and thank you for using NYFA Classifieds.

This post is part of a regular blog series, NYFA Creative Careers. Find more articles about job seeking and sustaining your artistic career in our Business of Art archive.

-Molly Martin, Account Manager, Classifieds

Image: Mie Yim (Fellow in Painting ‘15)