Targeting everyone from new immigrants to the newly unemployed, job scams are getting surprisingly smart

More and more of the jobseeking process now takes place remotely, with less face-to-face interaction than ever before — and over the course of the pandemic and into the post-pandemic economy, that has meant booming business for LinkedIn job scams.

Canadians have lost more than $20 million to job scams since 2020, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and experts say that these scams have only grown more prevalent ― and sophisticated ― over the course of the pandemic.

“Scammers post as hiring managers or recruiters, often scraping the details of real recruiters for a given company to create authentic-looking profiles,” explained Kelsey Rolfe in Canadian Business. “Lured into a false sense of safety, jobseekers go through a virtual interview process and quickly receive job offer…and are asked to provide personal information such as their social insurance number and driver’s license.”

Some are even lured into sending money to a third party, often for “training” that they’ll never get back.

Job platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed say these scams have gotten harder to spot. “There’s certainly an increase in the sophistication of the attacks and the cleverness,” said LinkedIn VP Oscar Rodriguez. The platforms themselves are struggling to keep up ― LinkedIn said that in six months last year, it blocked 16.4 million accounts suspected of being scammers.

Experts say those most at risk are early-career professionals (who are unlikely to spot risky recruitment practices, especially given the speed at which that has changed) and new Canadians. And now, with the rapid spread of AI tools, the scams are scaling up.

“ChatGPT-style solutions make it much harder to detect scams,” said Etay Maor, cybersecurity professor. “IT accelerates the process and it lowers the bar for newcomers.”

Concerned about potential job scams? Check out LinkedIn’s tools and tips to spot them before they get you.

Content written by Kieran Delamont for Worklife, a partnership between Ahria Consulting and London Inc. To view this content in newsletter form, click here.