| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Latest ID theft scam: Fake job listings
NEW YORK (AP) -- Internet job board Monster.com, acknowledging a growing problem for online career sites, is e-mailing millions of job seekers, warning that fake listings are being used to gather and steal personal information. An e-mail message from Monster, which arrived in many users' computer mailboxes Thursday, cautions that "regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers." The e-mail, labeled a "critical service message," is going out this week to all active users of Monster's main site, company spokesman Kevin Mullins said Thursday. Mullins said he did not know exactly how many people that included, but that it is "definitely well into the millions." Difficult to estimate damageThe e-mail warning focuses attention on an issue that has long been talked about in the online recruiting business, but whose scope or damage is difficult to estimate. Monster and competitors like CareerBuilder.com and HotJobs.com, already post information cautioning users of such dangers and telling them what they can do to protect themselves from false postings. The blanket e-mail by Monster appears to be the first time one of the big job sites has addressed job hunters directly about the potential for identity theft. Mullins said the warning was not precipitated by any specific incident. Instead, the company is merely trying to protect its users, he said. Identity theft on the job boards is "a very rare occurrence," Mullins said. "We just want to be out in front of any potential problems." No comment from competitors
Spokesmen for HotJobs and CareerBuilder declined to comment specifically on Monster's move, but said they have each tried to alert users to the identity theft issue. "I absolutely think its a serious problem and I think that the way we've dealt with it is consistent messaging," said Chris Jones, vice president of content for HotJobs, which is owned by Yahoo! Inc. Jones said HotJobs has discussed the issue in information posted on its site and in newsletters. He noted that the next issue of HotJobs' monthly newsletter, which goes out to about 5 million users who have signed up for it, will include a cover story on false job posting used to loot personal information. A spokeswoman for CareerBuilder, Jennifer Sullivan, said site executives were not aware of any incidents involving theft of personal information resulting from a job posting on their site, but post cautionary information nonetheless. Problem for the industry?
But Pam Dixon, a research fellow with the Denver-based Privacy Foundation who has studied Internet job sites, said the Monster e-mail confirms what has become a major hazard for online job seekers. "I've heard of this on all the major sites," she said. Dixon said most of the cases she's familiar with involve jobseekers who have responded to listings by providing their credit card numbers, social security numbers or agreed to ship overseas materials that are prohibited from being sold outside U.S. borders. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
This is a very big problem and its throughout the job search industry. It's not just on Monster.
