Phishers Giving Bogus Job Adverts to Steal Private Information

According to reports released by the Office of Data Protection Commissioner in Ireland on February 9, 2009, cyber criminals are taking advantage of the ongoing economic turmoil to victimize desperate employment seekers through phishing or identity fraud scams.

Bill Hawkes, Data Protection Commissioner, advised job hunters to exercise extra caution while providing personal information in job applications, as reported by dataprotection on February 9, 2009. The advice comes after Hawkes' office recently received complaints from people who applied for the jobs but they were actually bogus.

Moreover, although the number of complaints is just three, the Commissioner is worried that there might be even more of these types of scams to unfold in other forms. The scams relate to phishing and other frauds such as ID theft.

As per the Commissioner's Office, one job scam among the three involved an advertisement published in an evening newspaper as it sought for a laborer for the Dublin airport in Ireland. Those who replied at the mentioned e-mail addresses were given the impression that they had been selected for the work for an attractive wage of €19.50 per hour and they needed to supply certain details. But when the applicant sent the personal particulars, it turned out that the job was non-existent.

Another job scam also involved e-mails and specifically targeted persons in charitable institutions by looking for candidates for a post at the Geneva-based United Nations. As usual, the post turned out to be non-existent.

The third scam remained undisclosed although it was believed that confidential facts in that too were exchanged through phishing e-mails.

Gary Davis, Deputy Data Protection Commissioner and Director of Investigations, states that he believes the scamsters most likely were gathering the information for credit card or loan applications, as reported by irishtimes on February 10, 2009.

Davis further stated that a genuine employer wouldn't ever ask for such private details over e-mail. He therefore urged people not to disclose personal information in such a manner as it could result in phishing frauds.

Related article: Phishers Expand Their Sphere of Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 2/23/2009