BBB Tip of the Week

Job seekers on Craigslist.com have reported many scam job listings.

The Better Business Bureau warns consumers to look out for the following signs that the ad is a scam:

• You are asked to pay up-front costs or provide a credit or debit card for training costs.

• You are asked to provide your bank account information to set up direct deposit before starting work. Only share this information once you are working.

• When you search online to verify a job’s authenticity, you find the exact job ad posted in many cities. Ads for jobs doing general tasks, such as administrative assistants and customer services representatives, are more likely to be scams.

• You are asked to provide your Social Security number for a background or credit check. Legitimate companies and scammers alike may ask you for this information. To stay safe, do an online search to make sure the company is legitimate. Scammers may hijack the name of real companies. So call the company directly to ensure they really posted the job.

• You are asked to deposit a check and wire a portion of the money to someone else. Banks deposit checks, even fake ones. Once it is clear that the check is fraudulent, you are responsible for paying back the amount deposited into your account to the bank.

• You are hired on first contact, without going through an interview process and perhaps without even sending a resume.

• When you click a link in a job ad, you are directed to a phishing site or prompted to download malware, often cloaked as a job application plug-in, “wizard” or app.

• As well as using real company names in scam job ads, scammers also may copy a legitimate job ad and switch out the contact information for their own in a Craigslist ad. To avoid these scammers, always search the company’s website or call the company to verify that the job is real.

If you are still uncertain about a job ad or business, contact the BBB at www.bbb.org or call (509) 455-4200.

By Erin T. Dodge, BBB editor