People who put their résumés online increasingly are finding them accessed not just by legitimate employers but by offshore criminals out to steal identities or bring low-level recruits into international crime rings, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Fraudsters are more aggressive about contacting people whose résumés are online, whether on personal Web sites or on large, reputable career search sites. “We’re hearing from a couple of people each week who are having their résumé accessed by criminals,” said Pam Dixon of the non-profit San Diego research organization World Privacy Forum.
The offer may be for a “remailing” job. One woman was to receive packages in the mail and resend them to an address in Belarus. She was promised a $2,000 monthly salary for the relatively cushy job. When she never got paid — or even reimbursed for her shipping costs — she started to investigate and found out that the company didn’t exist. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says that wthat may be happening is that criminals are using stolen credit cards to order electronics from U.S. e-tailers. Sometimes criminals offer jobs, then ask for sensitive data such as Social Security number, a scan of a driver’s license or a bank account number, under the pretext of a background check. The information then is used in an identity theft.
Link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/231990_onlineresumes11.html