Jobs Seekers In America: Get Ready To Be Scammed

In this post-lockdown era, everyone is talking about the job market in America, about all the underpaid and overstressed workers who have finally had it and thrown in their resignations. Quitting may be at an all-time high, but scamming seems to be hitting even higher marks. So why aren’t more people talking about the war games and mine fields of Linkedin and Indeed?

Indeed, there’s nothing honest and wholesome about these and similar job-search websites. On a recent Friday afternoon, a recruiter through LinkedIn contacted me about a role in my area. We exchanged a few emails, and then set up a phone call to discuss the position. Towards the end of our conversation, she requested a FaceTime chat — on the spot, without any time to prep.

Initially, I felt uncomfortable about the casual nature and unbalanced power dynamic of the face-to-face meeting (I was sitting in my bedroom in a t-shirt while she sat in the placement firm’s office wearing appropriate attire), however, I gave in. During our brief FaceTime, she asked for my birthdate and the last four digits of my social security number. This astonished me. What right did she have to ask for that information, especially in an era when so many of us have encountered scams?

I told the recruiter I wasn’t comfortable giving up such sensitive information, particularly after having invited her into my bedroom with little notice. She accepted my reply, but then quickly signed off. My scam-sniffer was on high alert. All weekend my mind kept returning to the off-putting nature of the encounter. I worried that she was, indeed, a scammer now equipped with my resume, cell phone number, and — if recorded — a video of me talking. By Tuesday, I had made up my mind. I would dig into what she was all about.

After thoroughly looking over her LinkedIn profile and the placement firm’s website (which had posted a scam alert), I called her office to reverse the interview. I spoke with a young man who gave me his name. I asked him questions about the recruiter who had contacted me: did she actually work there, and what was the general practice regarding gathering birthdates and social security numbers from potential workers. He told me that many of the placement firm’s clients — the companies hiring workers — requested birthdates and the last four digits of social security numbers. This was general practice. I was stunned.

How could the placement firm and the companies hiring staff justify asking job seekers—who hadn’t yet been offered jobs — to give up sensitive information that could, if improperly used, lead to breaches of even more sensitive information? It was unconscionable and unacceptable. It was yet another stress-incurring tactic that ultimately was demeaning. All the power rested with the hiring staff. They could potentially tap into financial and health information while the worker had no protection against identity theft, other than the court system (and good luck with that!).

No wonder people are throwing up their hands and quitting. We are all sitting in our t-shirts, in our bedrooms while those with certain kinds of jobs play power games. I think of Guantanamo Bay where captives were chained naked to the floor or sprayed down with water for hours. Job seekers may not be in the torture chamber, but they’re faced with similar dynamics. They are exposed and demeaned. They are being forced to play a sisyphean game of musical chairs with a lot of hurry up and wait.

Indeed, job seekers are linked in to a kind of hell.