Admittedly, out of laziness, or just convenience, I have been using Indeed quite a lot to apply for jobs. So when it comes to the other job sites, like Totaljobs, Jobsite etc, I'm not sure how well they handle the fake job problem. But I will say, I have used other websites, including Totaljobs, a few months ago and never had any problems with fake jobs. So maybe their listing processes are more strict.
With Indeed UK its so blatantly obvious. I apply for jobs, and the next day I'm inundated with spam mobile calls. Their rules and regulations for listing a job must be as easy as listing an item for sale on Gumtree. I don't give my phone number or details out to anyone. But they are on my CV, and of course, that is being sent to every job or "employer" (scammer) that I am applying to.
And the next day (I usually apply for jobs on the night) I'm getting calls from strange numbers. Usually I wouldn't answer them, but with the hope that it may be good news about a job I recently applied for, I feel compelled to answer the phone. After dealing with this for a while, and being let down every time, my compelled, excited frame of mind has frizzled away and been replaced by suspicion. Now I don't even answer the phone anymore if the incoming call is from a number I don't recognise.
After the call has ended, and the missed call has been logged, I go and do a search on the Internet for the number. What do I find? Complaints from other people on sites like who-called.co.uk. With close to all the calls I receive after applying for jobs on Indeed, basically all of them are spam, either related to PPI, fake phone contracts, car crashes that never happened, or some other ridiculous lie.
Some of these scammers are now using smarter tactics. Rather than just phoning up using strange numbers, like 0303, or the one that rang me today, 0441280811434, a select few now take the location details of where a person is from, such as Birmingham, London etc, and send those details to the target victims local scamming call center. So in my case the numbers calling me start with 0121, which is the area code for Birmingham.
Their success rate from doing this must have sky rocketed. But that won't last long once people become aware of their sneaky tactic. It didn't take long for me to realise what they were up to. And now, regardless of the area code, I won't answer before I've researched the number online. If its legit I will call them back.
What's the answer to this growing issue? I'm pretty sure new laws were recently put in place that were meant to prevent this kind of thing happening anymore, but the cold callers haven't seemed to take much notice. Like their calls to me, it's fallen on deaf ears.
I've considered removing most of my personal details from my CV, including using a phone number that I don't care about, and a throw away email address. But what I have started to implement already is researching the companies that are advertising on Indeed that I'm interested in applying to, and instead of using Indeed to apply, going over to the employers company website and submitting my application there instead.
Either that or I only apply to jobs that have a "Apply on Company website" button. The jobs that have the "Easily apply for this job" next to them, or any job where an individual sends the CV through Indeed are, in my experience, the ones much more likely to be fake. Indeed really need to address this problem as it seems to be happening more often.
And I mean, just think of all the details these low life companies are getting from using this method to generate potential leads. There is so much information about an individual on a CV. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a hundred cloned people out there who are now using my details as fake identity.
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