Beware and protect yourself from these job scams that could cost you thousands of dollars
Please be aware there has been a recent increase in scam activity targeting Deakin students, especially international students.
These students have received messages on social media or messaging programs, such as Facebook or WhatsApp, offering job opportunities. By pretending to be employers or recruiters, these scammers try to steal your personal information, financial details or payment for jobs that don’t exist or to involve you in criminal activities.
Sadly, students have already lost hundreds or thousands of dollars to these scams. Thankfully there are things you can do and watch out for to minimise your risk of being caught out by these scams.
Things to watch out for
Watch out for the following clues that a job offer might actually be a scam.
- Unsolicited job offers – employers have set hiring processes and won’t usually unexpectedly offer jobs to people they haven’t had previous contact with unprompted.
- Offers that seem too good to be true usually are – scammers could make promises such as high pay for little or no effort, hiring without an interview and being paid before you’ve done any work to encourage you to take their bait.
- Job postings with poor grammar, formatting and lack of clear job requirements – these can be a sign that an offer is not legitimate. Although AI tools have made it easier to generate convincing fake job postings and they can also look legitimate.
- Requests for payment or personal information upfront – legitimate employers won’t ask you to pay money for job opportunities, such as application or background check fees or for materials needed to do the job. They will also typically only ask you for personal information, such as identification documents or bank details after an initial screening and later in the hiring process.
- Time pressures – scammers will often give short deadlines to pressure you into acting quickly without thinking out of fear of missing out. Don’t respond right away, always take your time and think things through before acting.
This isn’t a complete list and if you have a feeling that something might be off or are suspicious for any reason, then act carefully.
How to better protect yourself
- Research the company and verify job offers independently. If there isn’t much official company information publicly available, such as a website, social media profiles interacting with customers, address, phone number or other evidence of it operating in the world, it may not exist. Even if a company does seem real, contact them through their official channels to confirm the offer is actually from them and not an impersonator.
- Always be very careful who you share your personal information with and what information you share.
- If you need to do an interview or meet with a business, make sure to do so in a safe location.
What you should do if you think you’re being scammed
If you’re contacted with a job opportunity and you suspect it is a scam, do not respond and do not provide any personal or financial details to them.
- If you think the scammer has your bank account details, contact your bank immediately.
- If you receive a message of this nature, report it immediately to Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and ScamWatch. You can also contact Deakin’s cybersecurity team.
- Warn your friends, family and fellow students about these scams.
There are no consequences for reporting a potential scam – it is always better to be safe than sorry.
Some resources on job scams
- Deakin’s cybersecurity blog on scams targeting job seekers and Online safety and security webpages
- The Adecco recruitment agency has advice on how to avoid job scams on WhatsApp
- Facebook offers some guidelines on looking for jobs on social media.
Stay up to date with the latest known online scams by bookmarking and regularly visiting Deakin’s cybersecurity blog. You can also find more information about common scams targeting students via Study Melbourne’s website. You can also follow @scamwatch_gov on Twitter and subscribe to Scamwatch radar alerts.
The ACCC’s Little Black Book of Scams is also a handy tool for recognising scams – it is available in various languages including Simplified Chinese on the ACCC website).