Why do hackers post fake job offers, and how should we protect ourselves?

Years ago, the way to find a job was to read the classifieds in newspapers and call every job offer that matched our job aspirations. We could also simply hand out our CV around town, or ask our friends if the companies they worked for were looking for people. Nowadays, however, the main way to find a job is through online portals.

These types of web platforms are ideal for job searching because they allow us to send dozens of CVs a day without having to leave home. In addition, they speed up the search process by using different filters, and they can even send us new offers that fit our profile by email. The progress is considerable, and yet these new portals present new risks for their users.

Fake job offers are becoming more and more prevalent in Mexico

And ExpressVPN review The huge increase in the number of fake job offers published daily in our country is noteworthy, taking advantage of the large number of people who are constantly looking for work. Cyber ​​attackers found in this type of web portals an ideal environment to collect the data of thousands of potential victims, and, in addition, the information shared in the CVs is usually really exhaustive.

The result is that an increasing percentage of job offers posted in Mexico are fake, with thousands of people sending their CVs directly to cyber attackers and scammers. This is very dangerous for several reasons, starting with the indiscriminate theft of personal data, and reaching the extreme of all kinds of scams where hackers try to get money from victims’ bank accounts.

Employment scams continue to be a problem

This type of job scam occurs when hackers create a scheme to steal money from those who apply for their fake job offers. To achieve this, cyber attackers publish fraudulent job offers with supposedly really lucrative offers, including salaries of more than 50 thousand pesos per month, and even offering the possibility of obtaining a ‘Green Card’ to work in the United States.

These tempting offers attract the attention of thousands of people in the middle of the job search process. Faced with the possibility of getting such a well-paid job without having university studies, the victims apply for the offer and shortly after receive a reply from the scammer, who assures them that their application is on track and that, in order to get the job, they must make a payment during the selection process.

The argument used to justify this payment varies. In some cases, it is suggested that the payment is for training, while in others it may be for other expenses such as the purchase of a uniform, the payment of transport to the workplace, or even the processing of the supposed ‘Green Card’. If the victim falls for the scam, he or she proceeds to make the payment and loses the money, which, of course, goes into the hands of the scammer.

Our personal information, another of the objectives

Hackers also seek to obtain the private information of anyone who applies for their fraudulent job offers. In this case, cyber attackers seek to obtain data such as the email address, phone number, full name, or ID number of the victims. This information – among many other data – is then used to hack the accounts of the affected people.

Cyber ​​attackers can opt for different strategies to breach their victims’ online accounts. If they consider accessing your email through a dictionary attack, they can use it to reset passwords for social networks and other digital platforms in your name, including online stores such as Mercado Libre or Amazon. But there is an even greater risk: SIM card duplication.

Those who include their mobile number in their fake application and also add a copy of their voter ID or passport may be exposed to a SIM duplication attack. The cyber attacker uses these documents to report the alleged loss of the victim’s SIM to the telephone company and obtain a duplicate, which they will then use to reset the passwords of the online accounts associated with the number in question.

When applying for online jobs, it is therefore essential that we pay close attention to the wording of the job offers and the communications we receive from our application. We should rule out offers that require payment in order to be eligible for the job, and it is also very important that we limit the information we share on our CV so as not to become victims of a future hack.

(I.S.)

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