FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) today issued a public service announcement to warn about scammers using spoofed company websites and fake job listings to target applicants.

"Since early 2019, victims have reported numerous examples of this scam to the FBI. The average reported loss was nearly $3,000 per victim, in addition to damage to the victims’ credit scores," the FBI says.

"While hiring scams have been around for many years, cybercriminals’ emerging use of spoofed websites to harvest PII and steal money shows an increased level of complexity."

The hiring scam

Scammers are spoofing company websites and post fake job openings on online job boards to funnel job applicants to their spoofed company sites.

The potential victims are then contacted via email, with the cybercriminals posing as employees "from different departments, including recruiters, talent acquisition, human resources, and department managers."

The targets are then asked to by the scammers to take part in a video interview and offered jobs, "usually in a work-at-home capacity."

"In order to appear legitimate, the criminals send victims an employment contract to physically sign, and also request a copy of the victims’ driver’s licenses, Social Security numbers, direct deposit information, and credit card information," the FBI adds.

"Criminals may also tell victims they need to pay upfront for background checks or screenings, job training, start-up equipment, or supplies."

Criminals often lend credibility to their scheme by advertising alongside legitimate employers and job placement firms, enabling them to target victims of all skill and income levels. - IC3

While the victims will be told that their payments will be added to their first paychecks after starting the job, the scammers will close all communications channels after receiving the money.

Even though hiring scammers have been active for a while now, the usage of spoofed websites to harvest victims' PII data and to steal their money shows the cybercriminals' capability to increase their scam's level of complexity.

How to detect and protect yourself against hiring scammers

While criminals will commonly ask the same information as legitimate companies looking for new employees would making a hard to detect when someone is trying to scam you, there are things you can look for to identify scam attempts.

According to the FBI, one or more of the following indicators should give away a fake job scammer:

Interviews are not conducted in-person or through a secure video call.

Interviews are conducted via teleconference applications that use email addresses instead of phone numbers.

Potential employers contact victims through non-company email domains and teleconference applications.

Potential employers require employees to purchase start-up equipment from the company.

Potential employers request credit card information.

Job postings appear on job boards, but not on the companies’ websites.

Recruiters or managers do not have profiles on the job board, or the profiles do not seem to fit their roles.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also has information on how job scams work, as well as the signs you should look for to identify this type of fraud.

An FTC video detailing examples of known hiring scams is embedded below.

When it comes to protecting yourself against a scammer's efforts to trick you into giving away sensitive info, the FBI recommends doing a quick Google search of the hiring company and to stay away if you find more than one site for the same firm — something that might indicate an active hiring scam.

Also, you should only give PII and bank account info after being hired and in-person. If a video call is requested, you should first confirm the employer's identity using employee photos available on the company's website.

Providing credit card information is also something that should never be done, as is sending money via wire transfers or any other means to individuals you met online.

"Never share your Social Security number or other PII that can be used to access your accounts with someone who does not need to know this information," the FBI also adds.

If you have fallen victim to such a scam, the FBI recommends reporting it to IC3 at www.ic3.gov or to one of the local FBI field offices listed at www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices.

The fraudulent activity should also be reported to the site where you found the fake job listing and to the company which got impersonated by the scammers.

Last but not least, always reach out to your financial institution to stop or reverse any financial transactions you might have made after the scammers contacted you.