One of the worse things about job scams is that they waste precious time, energy and sometimes even money that a job seeker could be using on valid job leads.  Below are a few ways that a job seeker can avoid becoming the victim of a job scam:

1.     Do your homework. Before applying for any job, do a quick internet search on the company.  Do they have a website?  Are there legitimate articles about the company that will give you more information? If you do a quick internet search of the company and find that there is zero information about them other than more postings for their “job ad” then you are probably dealing with a scam.

2.     Be leery of job ads that make outrageous claims, use all capital letters and emphasize the need for no experience.  If a job ad needs to “yell” like a used car advertisement, then you are probably dealing with a job scam.  Even if you decide to look into it further, do not give the poster of the ad any personal information.  And if you must get more information on the “job”, at least get the name of the company first so you can do a little more research before investing more time.

3.     Avoid responding to “invitations” to apply for a job that have no company name, have a company name that you can’t verify, request personal information such as a driver’s license number or require that you pay a “small” processing fee to apply.  Legitimate employers don’t make their applicants jump through these types of hoops.  If you receive an “invitation” requesting this type of information, then it is probably a job scam.