Fraudulent Job Postings
Stanford Handshake is a tremendous resource for students to search for career opportunities and to connect with employers. However, like with all popular digital platforms, there is abuse of this system. On occasion, we will see fraudulent communications targeting students. Learn more about reporting a suspicious job offer to the UIT security office.
What to Look For
In the COVID-19 era, virtual job search safety is more important than ever. Here are some warning signs to look out for when evaluating a potential opportunity:
- You are asked to give your credit card or bank account numbers, or copies of personal documents — but you get nothing in writing.
- You must send payment by wire service or courier.
- You are offered a large payment or reward in exchange for allowing the use of your bank account — often for depositing checks or transferring money.
- You receive an unexpectedly large check.
- This is not an exhaustive list. There may be other clues, or a fraudulent posting may not conform to any of these conditions — but these are common tactics.
Reporting
Stanford Career Education screens all employers prior to joining the Stanford Handshake platform, but we do not monitor each job posting. Please be vigilant in recognizing the signs of a fraudulent offer. Even if you are unsure if the offer is fraudulent, please report it if you suspect anything.
How to Flag an Employer
If an employer passed our checks but is recruiting inappropriately, Stanford Career Education Staff and students flag the employer to warn others and take away their access to post jobs. An employer can be flagged for the following reasons:
- Insufficient or mismatching profile information: This is for companies that have a nonworking website, or the address doesn't match what is listed on their site, the email domain for the user is different from the corporate/expected domain, etc.
- Poor hiring practices: This includes a bad interviewing experience from a student, poor communication between the company and applicant, recruiter was a no-show to a registered event or fair, etc.
- Low grade opportunities: This includes jobs that are strictly commission based, door to door sales or cold calling, multilevel marketing, internships that have program fees, etc.
- The employer is spamming students: examples include repeated job postings or messages
- This is a fraudulent or fake employer: This is for employers that have demonstrated fraudulent behavior/activity.
- Other: Everything else that doesn't fit in one of the other categories - think, nonworking website, mismatching location information on the profile/website, unpaid fair/event, etc.
What Should I do?
Email immediately if an employer requests your bank routing information, transfers funds into the account, and asks you to withdraw the funds and transfer them to someone else. This is an indicator that you bank account is receiving stolen money and you are being used to transfer the stolen money to criminals. Even though you may not be aware that a crime was committed, you would still be an accessory to the crime and could face prosecution.
Other Helpful Resources to Prevent Fraud & Phishing Scams
