3 Common Job Scams on LinkedIn to Avoid

3 Common Job Scams on LinkedIn to Avoid 3 Common Job Scams on LinkedIn to Avoid Here are three common job scams on LinkedIn and how to avoid them. The African Prince Job Scam If you’ve ever gotten an email at 3:00 a.m. urging you to help an African prince transfer his life savings into your bank account, you’re not alone. And now, the same scammers are targeting professionals on LinkedIn with fake personas like doctors living in Dubai who promise that if you only help them out, theyll share a huge amount of money with you. Many people have fallen victim to this type of scam, which operates on people’s trust and the promise of quick, easy money. Once you divulge your bank info, the scammers will swoop down and withdraw every single cent from your account. What you should do: If you receive these emails, it’s best to just ignore them or send them directly to your spam folder. If you receive the message through LinkedIns mail system, you can flag it as an inappropriate contact. If you engage with the person sending it, they’ll continue corresponding with you and it can be tricky to get them to leave you alone. If you want, you can always report the job scam to your local Better Business Bureau. And after all, doesn’t this African prince have friends with whom he can trust his fortune? The Work for Free Job Scam You’ve primed your LinkedIn profile to show that you’re looking for work. Out of the blue, a company contacts you through LinkedIn to extend a job interview to you based on your profile and qualifications. You go through the entire job process and are hired. You’re not asked for your bank account info, nor are there other signs that the job might be a scam. You work for a few weeks in your freelance job, but when it comes time to receive your paycheck, you get bupkis in return. This happened to Irene, a job seeker who had already been working from home for a legitimate company for years. She told us, The sales manager contacted me through my LinkedIn profile and the owner interviewed and hired me. It was all outbound calling. I worked for them for three weeks and two days, and out of the blue got a phone call they decided to ‘go in a different direction’ and said they would send my paycheck. It never arrived. “The sales manager contacted me through my LinkedIn profile and the owner interviewed and hired me. It was all outbound calling. I worked for them for three weeks and two days, and out of the blue got a phone call they decided to ‘go in a different direction’ and said they would send my paycheck. It never arrived.” See more at: http://undress4success.com/scams-vs-real-work-from-home-jobs-a-job-seekers-story/#sthash.F2JntUNm.dpuf “The sales manager contacted me through my LinkedIn profile and the owner interviewed and hired me. It was all outbound calling. I worked for them for three weeks and two days, and out of the blue got a phone call they decided to ‘go in a different direction’ and said they would send my paycheck. It never arrived.” See more at: http://undress4success.com/scams-vs-real-work-from-home-jobs-a-job-seekers-story/#sthash.F2JntUNm.dpuf “The sales manager contacted me through my LinkedIn profile and the owner interviewed and hired me. It was all outbound calling. I worked for them for three weeks and two days, and out of the blue got a phone call they decided to ‘go in a different direction’ and said they would send my paycheck. It never arrived.” See more at: http://undress4success.com/scams-vs-real-work-from-home-jobs-a-job-seekers-story/#sthash.F2JntUNm.dpuf “The sales manager contacted me through my LinkedIn profile and the owner interviewed and hired me. It was all outbound calling. I worked for them for three weeks and two days, and out of the blue got a phone call they decided to ‘go in a different direction’ and said they would send my paycheck. It never arrived.” See more at: http://undress4success.com/scams-vs-real-work-from-home-jobs-a-job-seekers-story/#sthash.F2JntUNm.dpuf Luckily, after being scammed on LinkedIn, she wound up using to find a legitimate work-from-home job. It’s important to note that not all job scams mean that you’ll fork over your hard-earned money. Sometimes the scam comes in the form of actually working for free (unbeknownst to you), and then the company will disappear or discontinue your employment as a way to avoid paying you. Thing is, as an independent contractor, you have very limited, if any, rights. In the end it can cost you more to sue the company than what is owed to you. What you should do: As with any potential job offer, you should do your due diligence ahead of time. Check out the company online by visiting the Better Business Bureau to get a sense if it’s legit or not. You can even Google the company’s name along with the words “rip-off” or “scam” to see what comes up. Look for other employees on LinkedIn to see if their profiles are real or fake. From there, you should have a good sense if this is a real job opportunity or not. And NEVER let a company rush you into making a rash decision. Scammers count on desperate job seekers not thinking things through, so be sure to walk away if youre ever pressured into accepting a job on the spot without being able to research the company. Scam Messages in LinkedIn Groups You share your thoughts, ideas, and best how-to-find-a-job tips with your fellow job seekers in LinkedIn groups. Unfortunately, you may have more foes than friends in your LinkedIn circles. Job scammers have started infiltrating job groups pretending to be fellow job seekers who are offering helpful advice and job leads to unsuspecting users. There are a few ways to spot the scammers. Be wary of anyone with a profile that doesn’t have a photo or has only a handful of connections. If they are offering a lead to a job that seems too good to be true (e.g., “Earn $5,000 with simple mouse clicks!”), it almost always is. That’s why it’s a safer bet to go with a reputable job search board such as, where the jobs are hand-screened to ensure that they are 100 percent legitimate and scam-free. What you should do: Tough times can make even the savviest job seeker desperate. But don’t let your desperation blind you from the warning signs of a job scam. Check out the profile of the poster to see if it’s real or not, and then Google the person’s name along with the company name to see what comes up. Do your research to see if other people have been similarly scammed. And above all, trust your instincts. If it seems too good to be true, it generally is. While you may think that you’re safe among the millions of other professionals on LinkedIn, you need to be aware that job scammers lurk among them, too. Use your common sense to ensure that you don’t get scammed in your pursuit of a work-at-home job- and work-life balance. Readers, have you seen jobs scams on LinkedIn? Or do you know someone who has been scammed? Let us know about your experiences in the comments section below!