How to identify and protect yourself from a recruitment scam?
An increasing number of individuals, falsely claiming to be part of our staff, have reached out to the public for fraudulent purposes, in order to obtain personal and/or financial information.
Have you been contacted by someone claiming to be working for Approach People Recruitment and hiring for a job? Do you suspect it to be a scam? Are you asking yourself “Is Approach People a legitimate business?”. First things first, we are a legitimate business and we have been in the recruitment industry for more than two decades. Then, here are a few guidelines on how to spot a recruitment scam and what to do to protect yourself.
How to spot a scam?
If someone reaches out to you advertising a job and introducing themselves as a recruitment consultant from Approach People, here’s what to look out for to spot a scam:
- They reach out to you through apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram;
- They contact you on weekends: our consultants work only on weekdays and don’t reach out to potential candidates on a Saturday or a Sunday;
- The spelling in the messages is poor and there are grammar mistakes;
- The job description is poorly written and/or vague;
- They advertise high salary jobs that start immediately, without any interview;
- They send a screenshot of or a link towards a website that is not approachpeople.com (this website is our only website);
- They ask for unnecessary personal information;
- They ask for money for “fees” (such as “administration fee”, “security fee” or “accreditation fee”). Approach People Recruitment will never ask candidates to pay for any type of fee, nor will we ask candidates to transfer cash or provide banking/payment information;
- Their communications are from generic accounts such as Gmail addresses. Approach People Recruitment email addresses take the format of name@approachpeople.com or name.surname@approachpeople.com. If their email address is different from this format, please do not respond.
What to do in case of a scam?
If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be part of Approach People Recruitment’s staff and you can’t tell whether it is a scam or not:
- Please reach out to us through our contact form and give us as much information as possible. Someone from our team will reply as soon as possible.
If you know a job advertisement/message is a scam using the Approach People Recruitment name and logo, here’s what to do to protect yourself:
- Stop any communication with them;
- Take a screenshot of the scammer’s contact details;
- Report the incidents and the accounts to the respective platform’s support or reporting mechanisms;
- If you have given them any money, inform your bank immediately.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this incident may have caused you. We are taking all the possible steps and actions to address this issue on an ongoing basis. Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to us again.