In the news recently, there was mention of a City in Montana requiring not only information on your social media accounts, but your user name and passwords as well. It goes without saying, this is huge concern to applicants’ privacy.
On a related note, phishers and scammers are taking advantage of job applicants as well by setting up phony companies to order to gather personal information. This is an article definitely worth looking at if you are applying for a job primarily via electronic communication.
Job seekers who posted their resumes on Monster, Career Builder and Yahoo received e-mails from either USA Voice or Instant Human Resources, telling them that based on the their resumes they qualified for a promising sounding position. Those who didn’t smell a scam right away filled out online applications, in the process disclosing personal information.
Just be careful who you give your personal information to. Whenever there is opportunity, you can bet scammers are looking to take advantage of people.
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People so NAIVE and gullible that actually put this kind of personal information that absolutely nobody else needs deserve what they get.
Everything on a job application is personal information that a legitimate employer needs. It is not “naive” or “gullible” to apply for a job online and provide personal information. Many employers primarily begin the hire process online (i.e. Honda, the US Federal Government, and many US state governments).
The problem is not checking out the employer first to see if they are legitimate. If possible, a job hunter should try to use a business’ website after seeing a posting at an online jobsite. One should also avoid responding to cold emails.
By no means does a person who falls for a scam “deserve what they get”. The scammer is in the wrong, not the person who needs a job. The job hunter should be given the benefit of the doubt because he/she is being taken advantage of at a time that can be very stressful, a situation that can make it difficult for one to think clearly.
Nobody asking for passwords or credit/debit cards PINs can be legitimate, not even a prospective employer. They have absolutely no business in getting into private accounts. There are people who are still falling for this and that’s where naive and gullible comes from in my original reply. No matter how many warnings are given to people not to give this kind of information to ANYONE, people still fall for this. Those are the ones that deserve what they get.
We were apparently on two slightly different topics. Phishing for personal information is the topic I was commenting about, not Bozeman or financial information. Financial information is definitely off limits for most employers, except for maybe the financial industry or federal agencies requiring high security clearances. Passwords and PINs should definitely always be private.
I hold by the statement that the scammers are in the wrong, but I see where you are coming from. It is frustrating to hear of people told over and again to not fall for phishing schemes, yet they do. So sad that some people just can’t tell the difference.
Crafty scammers are occassionally successful against smart people. Anyone could eventually fall for one. Remember Bernie Madolf? Many people lost millions of dollars in his investment sceme — including Larry King and and many other wealthy people.