Payment transfer scams begin with a con artist that pretends to be an employer. The con artist uses a job ad to lure in an unsuspecting job seeker, or they may use information from a resume they have found. The con artists can be quite convincing, and may even steal company names and corporate logos to convince victims that they are legitimate. After the con artist has won the job seeker’s trust, the con artist tricks the job seeker into giving up bank account numbers. The reasons given for this can be clever. One common reason the con artists give out is to say they only deliver paychecks by “direct deposit.”

This timeline tracks one job scam as it systematically wove its way through dozens of job sites over the course of a year and left multiple victims in its wake. Like a computer virus, the scam has evolved over time. It is an ugly evolution that has substantially harmed job seekers who have fallen victim to it.

The scam began sometime in August of 2003, and as of July 7 2004, is still active. Known names this scam goes under are Unk Electronics, Macrocommerce Intersales, Nanjing Panada*, Antares Electronics, Inc.*, BestElectrics, and Omega Inc. Although the names are different, the likelihood is a very strong that it is all the same job scam.

The World Privacy Forum contacted CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com and Hotjobs.com to invite them as industry leaders to provide information about how they protect jobseekers from fraud. These sites and others were also invited to participate in a joint teleconference to discuss possible solutions to job fraud, given the changed environment the industry now faces.

The following four tips can help jobseekers protect themselves from falling prey to payment forwarding scams.

1. Never give personal bank account, PayPal, or credit card numbers to an employer.
2. Never agree to have funds or paychecks direct deposited to any of your accounts by a new employer.
3. Never forward, transfer, or “wire” money to an employer.
4. Do not transfer money and retain a portion for payment.

RSS, a technology that collects information from Web sites, bundles it together and then sends it to individuals to read offline is gaining popularity. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndicationor rich site summary. Right now, it looks like RSS may become an important part of how people use the Internet. For collecting and aggregating news headlines and tidbits from newspapers and blogs, RSS is convenient and helpful. RSS does have the potential for some real drawbacks for job seekers unless it is thoughtfully deployed by job search sites. However, the drawbacks are a fairly simple matter to correct.