Identity Theft Protection Blog

By the AllClear ID Team

Christy here with the AllClear Investigation Team. We’ve talked before about how job seekers are targeted with work from home scams, but now hopeful applicants have one more thing to worry about. Identity thieves are now gathering and harvesting information from the resumes of job seekers. Whether by gathering personal information or responding to the resumes and pretending to be a recruiter, it is a growing issue in the area of identity theft. One hotspot for this type of theft are public job posting websites. “People looking for work just don’t realize how susceptible they are,” says Heather Galler who has been CEO of an online job site called JobKite.com. “Having your resume online these days is like the yellow pages for the entire world.”

This type of identity theft has grown in recent years due to the continuing trend towards a digital society, economic trouble, and the vulnerability of people in the position of looking for a job. We are putting more and more of our information out in the open these days, and job seekers are eager to react to any response from potential recruiters in hopes of finding “something better”.

Identity thieves are using the information in a number of ways. One method uses the geographical information on resumes to go to the job-seeker’s home and sort through their trash in hopes of obtaining more personal information or account numbers in documents that were not shredded before being thrown away, or even stealing new mail as it comes in. Another method we’ve seen used involves a thief calling an old employer claiming to be a potential new employer checking references in order to try and get more information. They may also use the basic information to search for you in public records databases in order to try and possibly find more information. One other known, sneaky tactic scammers use is calling job seekers and pretending to be a recruiter asking for more information like Social Security or driver’s license numbers citing they need it for background checks for potential employers.

While there is always some degree of risk when putting your personal information “out there”, there are some things people can do to minimize it. These things include:

• Protect your resume: Some suggest masking your information by not putting your name on an online resume or limiting it to just a first initial and a last name. While helpful, it tends to make some recruiters believe you are paranoid or are a troublemaker. Another safe option would be to take precautions such as using a post office box for your address, a cellphone number (since they could trace a landline number to an address), and/or an alternative email address just for job hunting. There are many free email services and establishing a job-hunting email could give the added benefit of making you look more professional. If you would like to completely omit some personal information it is acceptable to put “Additional information is withheld for safety reasons and is available upon request.” Most recruiters will respect this. Also, it has become common to not list your references unless requested by a legitimate recruiter; this helps protect the privacy of your references.
• Look for the details: People should always check the job site for a privacy policy as any reputable site will have one. “Read it,” Galler emphasizes. “You want to make sure that you understand how long the resume will be active, and how to delete it if you want. If there’s no privacy policy, forget it.”
• Research those recruiters: Fake recruiters will watch for news of company layoffs and use that to look for potential victims. People should ask for references from any recruiters and look into the recruiter’s association, verifying they are associated with them. It is also important to remember to never give any money to a recruiter. There should be no need for monetary or bank account information until you are employed and signing into a direct deposit plan. Mother’s maiden name, SSN, or passwords should also never be requested by a legitimate recruiter.
• Educational records protection: You are always entitled to the option of requesting that your educational records not be released without your permission. This is always a good idea. It is also a good idea to limit your educational information in the resume. While this is always an area to really sell yourself, but omitting your graduation date will help protect the privacy of your college or university records.
• Beware the search engine: We’ve all done it – search your name or other information in a search engine to see what comes up. Sometimes people may search their Social Security number as well which is not a good idea. Internet savvy identity thieves can use the cookies on your computer to recall that information. It is best to limit to your name and the last four of your SSN, at most.

Views expressed are the personal views of the author, and do not represent the views of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, its employees, its members, or its clients.