From fake news to fake jobs. Scammers are indeed everywhere. But to make it worse, scammers are trying to victimize college students across the United States by offering them fake jobs.
A lot of college students are looking for part-time jobs to help support their financial needs. They need to get jobs in order to pay for their schooling and at the same time buy the necessary things for their day to day activities. Given that, scammers tend to take advantage of the situation as they post fake job ads.
Chief Marketing Officer of the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Erin Dufner said that the job scams are specifically intended for college students, KHOU.com reported. The job offers sounds really great and most of all looks trustworthy. To add more to that, those fake jobs are usually posted during summer time wherein most students are looking for jobs.
Dufner said that "Some of these ads may be talking about starting a job now.” She added, "Some of them may be starting to recruit for that summer influx of jobs. We really need to keep our eyes open for these fake scams."
Reportedly, scammers use student run email servers in sending fake job applications. There are also others that post advertisements on a legit college employment websites. That is how scammers get to offer job positions to students. Once the student accepts the job offer then the scammer will instruct him or her to wire money to a certain vendor or company. In this way the student will think that the money is necessary for work.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) already issued advisory regarding employment scams that are targeting college students. This is done in order to help students as well as other job seekers to know whether the job offer are bogus or not.
Here is an example of a scam e-mail: "You will need some materials/software and also a time tracker to commence your training and orientation and also you need the software to get started with work. The funds for the software will be provided for you by the company via check. Make sure you use them as instructed for the software and I will refer you to the vendor you are to purchase them from, okay."
Through the statement given by the FBI, college students will already have an idea how to protect themselves from scammers. Students should keep in mind to never accept any job offers that will require them to deposit cheques to their account or to wire money to other vendors. Aside from that, they should also check the grammar of the e-mail because most of the time, scammers use poor English language. What is important is that for everyone to be mindful at all times from scams.
Meanwhile, Jobs & Hire reported that the pay gap between college graduates and undergrads employees seem to widen. Given this situation only shows that one’s educational attainment matters a lot in the real world.
