Beware of Recruitment Scams
Beware of Recruitment Scams
This year we have come across more scams than ever before which has led us to create this blog to draw more light on the issue, help people identify a scammer & spread awareness about the issue to help protect anyone who is targeted.
Scammer: A person who commits fraud or participates in a dishonest scheme.
Unfortunately scammers are everywhere and no matter what industry you’re involved with someone will be trying to scam you.
This year there have been instances where candidates we’ve been supporting have been targeted by scammers who were posing as a recruiter for Platinum and attempted to gain personal information.
Thankfully the candidates quickly realised who had contacted them were not who they said they were and made our team aware of the scam so we could report this.
Scams in Circulation
This morning we were informed of yet another scam. See the message in the image to the right.
This is not a Platinum Recruitment employee or associate of the business & the role is also false. Please be vigilant when receiving such messages.
They appear to be asking people to progress with an application they have made & then asking for passport pictures & details to proceed via WhatsApp. To be clear this message has been sent with no prior communication with the candidate & for the record we never make an initial communication via WhatsApp.
From our understanding these messages are being generated & sent through a ‘bot’ from different numbers making it hard to identify who is the scammers actually are.
That being said we can still learn how to spot a scam before anyone is tricked into handing over anyone personal or financial information.
It is worth making the point that these scams are designed to trick you so don’t be too hard on yourself if you are caught out at all, however it is important to report the scam to the organisation the scammers are acting as & Action Fraud as soon as you are aware so they can be dealt with and the situation rectified.
We have outlined some red flags which will help you identify if someone is trying to scam you:
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Being asked for identification documents
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Being asked for personal finance details
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Asked to pay a fee to be put forward for a role
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Offer any sort of “guarantee”
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Pressurising you to make a quick decision
How Platinum Recruitment Communicate ✅
When one of our consultants contacts a candidate they will do the following:
- Make an initial telephone call to introduce themselves
- Follow up with an email sent from [consultant name]@platinumrecruits.co.uk
- Contact via LinkedIn if the previous 2 attempts have been unsuccessful
How Platinum Do Not Communicate ⚠️
Our consultants will NEVER:
- Initially contact via WhatsApp (this might happen once initial communication has been established & only with consent from the candidate.)
- Ask for any physical identification in the early stages of communication (this only happens at later stages of a recruitment process)
- Ask for any financial details EVER!
Our aim here is to spread the word about the scammers, to expose them and help people identify them before they it’s too late.
We hope our blog has helped in understanding and managing these situations, we know they can make people feel very anxious and uneasy.
Please share and spread the word so more people understand how to identify these scammers.
If you have been a victim of this, please use action fraud to open a case and file an official police report:
