There has recently been a significant rise in jobs scams, with fraudsters often impersonating recruitment companies or consultants. Whilst job scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the best way to help prevent yourself from becoming a victim of a job scam is to educate yourself on things to look out for during your job search. We have set out warning signs to help you spot a potential job scam.
Warning signs when being contacted
Below is a list of warning signs that could indicate you have been contacted by scammer posing as a recruitment consultant:
A purported Morgan Hunt consultant requesting you to:
- Provide personal financial details.
- Pay money for an “administration fee”, “security fee” or an “accreditation fee”. Morgan Hunt will never ask you to pay any type of fee, transfer cash or provide credit card information.
- Click unsolicited links or attachments.
Online contact from a purported recruitment consultant with:
- Communications from social media platforms, such as WhatsApp
- A lack of activity, information, or contact details on their profile.
- A suspicious profile picture.
- Poor spelling or grammar in communications.
- Communications of any sort guaranteeing employment or income.
- The job description is vague or poorly written
- Communications from generic addresses such as Gmail or Hotmail accounts. All email communications will be sent from official Morgan Hunt email addresses, such as consultant.name@morganhunt.com
Warning sites for webpages
There has also been a rise in cases of fraudsters cloning the sites of legitimate recruitment consultancies in an attempt to steal money and/or the personal details of job seekers and hiring managers.
To check the legitimacy of a site, we could encourage you to verify the SSL certificate. In most browsers this can be done by clicking the padlock on the far left of the URL. If it doesn’t have one, this could be a sign of a scam website.
What to do if you suspect a job scam using the Morgan Hunt name or logo
If you are unsure if a Morgan Hunt advertisement or communication is legitimate and/or you have been requested to attend an in person meeting, please contact your local Morgan Hunt branch or email info@morganhunt.com who will assist you as far as possible to verify the information you have received.
Morgan Hunt email addresses take the format of name.surname@morganhunt.com.If you are contacted by someone whose email address varies from this format, please do not respond.
What to do if you think you are the victim of a job scam
Take a screen grab or note of the fraudster’s details and report them to Action Fraud (see Resources below). If you have given them any money, contact your bank immediately and let them know. Warn the operators of the website/social media site through which you were contacted and let them know that their site is being used by fraudsters.
Report it
For more information on recruitment scams and how to report them, check out these dedicated pages:
- National Crime Agency – Fraud
- Action Fraud (National Reporting Centre for Fraud and Cybercrime)
- Jobs Aware (SAFERJobs)
To let Morgan Hunt know about a potential scam using our name, please get in touch with your local office here. See here for more information if required regarding the Morgan Hunt Privacy Policy.