Job seekers, be wary of collection agencies
Debt collection agencies are posting sketchy jobs on LinkedIn while other scammers prowl on Indeed
Last month, the U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs. And with this increase in jobs comes a heightened concern about scammers. Over the past 30 days, I’ve personally noticed five different scams and questionable hiring practices that left me shaking my head even more than the hackers who tried to break into my attorney colleague’s financials.
Collection agencies trying to find new work
While I’d already ran into scammers on popular job site Indeed, I wasn’t quite expecting to run for cover on LinkedIn. Recently, a collection agency posted a job for a Copy Editor. As a full-time freelancer, I’ve never been one to put all my eggs in one basket — odd jobs included. Like working in entertainment, unless you own one of your businesses, you’re heavily relying on the next gig so it’s always best to plan ahead.
However, 19 years of editing makes it impossible for me to ignore red flags. After applying for the copy editing work-from-home position, I received a response in 24 hours — exclamation points included. This is nerd talk for many, but copy editors (especially in the news industry) frown at TALK THAT SOUNDS SO EXCITING!!! and like it’s HUGE!, and intended for “kick ass” work with “rockstars.”
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Relax. It’s a job, not your team winning the basketball championship. Outside of the marketing industry, hiring managers and Human Resources representatives don’t usually sound this overly enthusiastic with job seekers. It’s possible that the cheerfulness will increase once this person is hired but not usually in the initial stages.
Then came the real eyebrow raiser. The collection agency refused to move forward with an interview about the job until these kinds of questions were answered: