The Office of Career and Professional Development reviews all employer and job postings on JOBSs, but site users are urged to select job sites carefully, validate job postings, use caution and common sense when applying for positions, and be alert to fraudulent postings. If you are searching for jobs, please be sure to review the company or ask the OCPD staff for assistance.
Please keep in mind the following before providing personal information to an employer:
- Do not give your personal bank account, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle account or credit card numbers to a new employer.
- Do not agree to have funds or paychecks direct deposited into any of your bank accounts before you have started working for them. Most employers give the option of direct deposit or a paycheck on the first day or week of actual employment, on site-not before.
- Do not forward, transfer, send by courier (e.g. FedEX, UPS) or “wire” any money to an employer or for an employer, using your personal account.
- Do not transfer money and retain a portion for payment.
- Do not respond to suspicious and/or “too good to be true” unsolicited job emails/phone calls/texts/etc.
- In general, applicants do not pay a fee to obtain a job (but there are some rare exceptions-so be careful and consult with a professional at the Center for Career Development first).
- Watch out for grammar and spelling mistakes.
- If the scammer is asking you to email another account or fill out a form that is outside of their business email account.
- Telling you have been hired for a job before submitting a resume, or have not been interviewed for a company that you do not remember applying to.
- Do not meet an employer for an interview at a suspicious location and/or time.
- If you are going on a job interview, be sure to let a friend or family member know when, where, and with whom you are meeting. Provide your friend or family members the name of the company and the name of the person you are meeting, address of the interview, and company contact information such as a phone number and email.
Globaltarget.com via World Privacy Forum offers the following job search safety tips as key indicators of job scams:
- Never give physical details about eye color, height, hair color, etc.
- Be suspicious if a company asks for your Social Security Number via email
- A company less than one year old should be thoroughly researched
- Use caution if the website for the company indicated by the sender's email address does not exist or is "under construction"
- A check of the domain name of the company in www.domainwhitepages.com gives highly contradictory information
- At times, notably poor spelling throughout a job ad can tip you off that there may be a problem, especially when found in conjunction with other factors such as no website, etc.
Let us Know @ careerservices@southernct.edu
Please report any suspicious or scam activity immediately to the OCPD so that we can prevent others from being affected.
An important aspect of the job search process is determining appropriate employers and job postings.
The following are some guidelines and tips that students should employ to avoid applying for dubious jobs:
- Closely monitor positions that have been posted on a Saturday or Sunday; scams generally occur over the weekend
- Be concerned if you must give your credit card or bank account numbers or copies of personal documents but you get nothing in writing
- A red flag should rise if you must send payment by wire service or courier
- It is not reasonable for an employer to offer you a large payment or reward in exchange for allowing the use of your bank account - especially for depositing checks or transferring money
- Question the receipt of an unexpectedly large check