TAMPA, Fla. — More people are likely hunting for jobs.
The most recent employment summary from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an increase in the unemployment rate.
“What they showed was that unemployment filings were at their highest in the last, higher than they’ve ever been in the last 4 years,” said Thomas Stockwell, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Tampa.
WATCH: Cybersecurity expert warns job posting scams are on the rise
That has cybersecurity experts on alert because job posting scams are on the rise.
There are concerns that more people will fall for them as they’re looking for work.
“We’ve seen an explosive growth in job scams over the last few months,” said Abhishek Karnik, head of Threat Research and Intelligence for McAfee.
You may have gotten one of the scam texts on your phone, where someone, unprompted, reached out with an apparent job opportunity.
“I have received them. Multiple times… They’re trying to put up these fake postings because people need to find work, people need jobs,” said Tim Harrington, who lives in St. Petersburg.
Karnik said most of these scams come in over text message, but you can get emails from fake recruiters too.
The messages are almost always vague, not addressed to you specifically, and don’t talk about your personal skills.
The scams will also have certain keywords to try to bait you.
“So, for example, some of the language we’ve seen used as bait is words such as you know maternity or paternity benefits,” said Karnik.
If they offer a large amount of money for almost no work, that’s a red flag too.
“So they can promise you anything from $200-$500 per day for as little as two hours of work,” said Karnik.
Scammers can also post fake opportunities on job listing sites.
Similar red flags apply to those, vague descriptions, high pay and requests for personal information upfront.
“When I first received one, I was like, okay, well, this is kind of odd, and it looked like it came from like an Indeed post, job posting, and the first thing I did was go to Indeed to check to see if there was actually any sort of job posting,” said Harrington.
Karnik said if you do fall for it, the scammer will typically try to set up a phone call to do a job interview.
“Then they’ll at some point ask you to make payments for training or payments for equipment, so they’ll ask you for upfront fees in order for you to get the job, in order for you to get the training. And they’ll promise to reimburse you,” said Karnik.
Make sure you also double-check the spelling on the job post; more than likely, if it’s a scam, it will have spelling errors.
If someone is pressuring you, that’s a red flag too.
Just to be safe, your best bet is to apply to a job directly on the company website.
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