…’tis the season to be scammed

By Sharon Graham.

As the holiday season approaches, we have seen an escalation in job search scams targeting Canadians. Job seekers need to be extra diligent these days.

As Career Professionals, we are all advocates for ethics and integrity in our market. Advise your clients to be on the watch for these RED FLAGS:

• FAKE JOB POSTINGS – If your client types in a job title on a job board, looking for postings and the result turns out to be a sales pitch to buy career services — tell your client to beware! It is clear that any company that would do this to job seekers has little integrity from the outset.
• FAKE HEAD-HUNTER – If a “recruiter” e-mails or calls your client and asks for money in return for a job interview, something fishy is probably going on. It is a conflict of interest for recruiters to take money concurrently from both ends — clients (employers) and candidates (job seekers).  Good employers and search firms never require job seekers to pay in order to start a job.
• FAKE JOB BOARD PARTNER – Tell your client to tread carefully if a company sends an unsolicited e-mail indicating something like this: “While conducting an online search, we reviewed your resume and were concerned that you were not getting the results that you deserve. Our professional resume writing partner will fix your resume…” Nobody should be targeting your client for resume services if they have not specifically requested help from the company.

There are many ethical, professional, and knowledgeable career service providers in Canada. This regular onslaught of unethical, immoral, and dishonest business practices is quite disconcerting. Not only does it take advantage of job seekers, but also tarnishes the complete Canadian career industry, including those who operate with integrity.

Career Professionals of Canada adheres to a strict code of ethics for practitioners and their services. If you are a Professional Member, feel free to post this code on your website.

I am currently investigating these and other Canadian job search scams. Please do let me know if you or your clients have experienced similar or other forms of  job search scams from Canadian organizations. Feel free to post your comments here.