You are at risk of being scammed and cheated on by recruiters who show no moral principles and who are unethical in their business practice.
The bad news? Job scams are out there
1. Be it recruitment firms or individuals who pretend to represent a client they don’t have. They convince candidates to share their resume for an interesting job opportunity.
However, as there never was a real client nor a genuine job, the resume is spread around in the market with the words that “their” candidate is actively looking for a new opportunity.
2.Presenting one or two strong resumes to a hiring company, which are totally fake and purely made up by the recruiter to impress the hiring company.
These fake “candidates” suddenly pull out or no longer have any interest. But in the meantime, the recruiter signed up the client and is now in business.
3.A recruitment firm pretending to be a client (a hiring company), who emails another recruitment firm asking for a detailed quotation. Done to solicit confidential business terms from a competing recruiter.
4.Recruitment firms who leave 0-star or 1-star reviews on other recruitment firms’ website, job boards, and Google. Typically claiming a terrible experience with bad customer service. All is fake just to discredit another firm.
5.Recruitment firms set up a fake LinkedIn profile to build a network of connections (read: potential candidates). The LinkedIn profile will have a Western name (foreigner), and a photo from a stock image website.
This practice is typically used by an agency or firm with only Thai or Asian employees.
The good news for candidates
You can spot them before they get you – of course only if you know what to look for.
When you get a call from someone presenting himself as a recruiter, by all means, listen and talk.
If the recruiter asks for your resume, share your personal email address but ask the recruiter to first email you with their contact details, company name and address, mobile number, and website. Then you can reply to that email.
Just because someone say they call from well-known recruitment firm in the market, does not mean they do. Many will call and only mention a company name but not their own name.
Or they will only give you their mobile number and not the telephone number to the company. Should be a warning sign.
A LinkedIn profile with no photograph or perhaps instead a logo or another image, could be a fake. If it’s a photograph, you can right-click the photo, then go to Search Google for Image and see if there are other visually similar images (i.e., stock images).
The good news for clients / hiring companies
If you are impressed by the approach from a recruiter or love the candidate profiles you are presented, then ask to “meet” on a video conference call.
Needless to say, but request that the communication is moved to emails so you are able to perform a due diligence on the recruitment firm and individual.
If you are not familiar with the recruiter or his firm, then ask for a signed letter from the candidate that appoints the recruiter to act as the candidate’s agent and representative.
The good news for recruitment firms
If the email is not from a company domain but from gmail or similar, while the person suggests he is from a hiring company, inform the sender that it’s a policy to present your service, fees, and terms to company emails only.
Check with Google if the company domain ending is correct; perhaps the email comes from .co and not the correct .com. Sometimes I see the fake sender use co.th even the company uses .com for their business in Thailand.
