What Is a Fake Job Posting And How to Spot it? 11 Best Ways

When you’ll be looking for employment opportunities in IT, most vacancies on job boards will be real. The employers who create them are genuinely looking for new staff members. However, you may also come across fake job postings. Their authors have no intention of hiring anyone. Which goals do they pursue then? How to detect and avoid them? Read this article to get to know the answers!

Reasons for Posting Fake Jobs Ads

An employer or an IT staffing and recruiting company https://znoydzem.com/ might resort to this technique to achieve the following goals:

• Conduct research and gather statistics. They might be interested in the number of applicants, their qualifications, response time and many other aspects. The results will enable them to better understand the labor market and the specifics of each job board that they analyze.
• Obey the law and/or the internal requirements of the company. Sometimes, the HR manager already knows which team member to promote to a new position. Yet there should be fair competition, that’s why they create an ad and even interview candidates. In the end, they will promote their already existing staffer because this person allegedly suits this role much better than all the outside professionals.
• Create a pool of candidates with the required qualifications. Next time they indeed have a vacancy, they will contact you directly. It’s not an ethical method. By doing so, companies save time and effort because they will be able to hire the right specialist very quickly. This tactic comes in particularly handy for hard-to-fill positions and for employers will low retention. The latter know that some staffers will quit soon and begin to look for newcomers to substitute them in advance.

Unfortunately, scammers might also have more dangerous plans, such as stealing your identity and money. Such individuals might lack any real connection with the IT labor market.

11 Symptoms of a Fake Job Ad

A scam vacancy might fail to meet any of these criteria. Yet if it does, think twice before responding to it.

Is Too Good to Be True

Does the employer promise you a salary that is 30% higher than the market average without asking too much in exchange? Will you be working fully remotely but every three months, the employer will pay for your trip to Brazil for a week of intense networking? Such generosity looks suspicious.

There Is Hardly Any Information Available About the Employer Online

If you’ve never heard about the hiring company, visit its official website and social network profiles. Try to find answers to these questions:

• Does this business look legit?
• When was it established?
• What do people say about it?
• For how long has it been using job boards and how many vacancies has it posted?

Honest startups at the early stage of development might lack customer testimonials. They didn’t have enough time to establish an impeccable reputation for themselves. But at least, they should have modern, informative and visually appealing websites. Try to reach out to their support crew to double-check whether they indeed have this vacancy and ask about its details. The sooner the support replies to you, the more polite it is and the more exhaustive the answers, the better.

unemployed businessman stress sitting on stair

Has a Vague Job Description

“Senior data analyst” or “remote digital product manager” serve as examples of good job titles. You understand at a glance whether this ad suits you or you shouldn’t waste time opening it.

And here are examples of clickbait ads: “Well-paid job for programmers with little or no experience” or “Startup looking for a hybrid team”. Why doesn’t the employer mention the required programming language? Why should they create an ad for a team and not for each of its members individually?

On the one hand, vague job titles make ads less visible. You would fail to come across these ads if you filter them by specific parameters, such as “Java programming” or “remote UI/UX designer”. But you’ll see them if you’ll be scrolling down the available range of ads — and probably, you’ll be tempted to click the title to get more information. That’s exactly what the scammer wants you to do.

Doesn’t Properly Explain Which Types of Project You’ll Be Working On

Even though employers sometimes can’t reveal all the details, they try to explain the specifics of the upcoming projects. For instance, they may tell you that you’ll be designing Android apps for the fitness and well-being niche. This approach enables companies to hire specialists with relevant expertise.

A scammer might say that you’ll be designing fabulous apps for different niches and each of these digital products will have over a million downloads. In this case, they also resort to unrealistic positive expectations that they can’t back up with any guarantees.

Contains Mistakes and Misprints

Professional HR managers know which tools to use to check the spelling. They realize that mistakes and misprints can damage the company’s image. Even when in a hurry, they will make sure the ad produces a favorable impression on candidates.

Lacks Personalization

When employers get in touch with you after you responded to their job ad, they should at least mention your name. Otherwise, you may receive a generic message that the sender copies, pastes and sends out to multiple recipients. That would be a bad sign.

Uses a Private Email Address

All serious recruiters use only their corporate email addresses with the company domain. Experienced scammers can create domains that look like real ones but in fact, only imitate them. To play safe, visit the official website of the employer and check the domain.

Fails to Provide Answers to Your Questions

As a candidate, you have the right to ask questions about the employer and the terms of your upcoming work. If the person whom you’re talking to refuses to share any information or provides weird answers, it might be a scammer.

Prefers Casual Messengers

Professional HR managers use Zoom or Teams to talk with candidates. Malicious actors opt for WhatsApp or some other apps that aren’t associated with the IT sector.

Asks You to Transfer Funds

Don’t pay for anything and avoid sharing your financial credentials! Real employers never offer paid training or carry out paid background checks of the candidates.

Accepts You Without a Proper Interview

In the following step, they will ask you to pay for something.

How to Make Sure a Vacancy Is Not a Fake

Call the hiring company and ask them whether they indeed have this vacancy and created an ad for it on a specific job board. That will provide you with a 100% security guarantee.

Alternatively, you can use the IT recruitment services of a well-known agency, such as Znoydzem.com from Poland. Agencies work only with reputable companies because they take care of their reputation. Their assistance is very affordable for candidates and they get most of their income as commissions from employers. Feel free to try!