What is a Fake Overseas Job Scam and How to Avoid it

The fake overseas job scam was attempted on Shadwal one of my blog reader for a job in a company Koch Industries. He had his doubts about being offered a job, and so asked my help. I found quite a few things weird. So apart from sharing those with him, I wanted to share it on my blog, which he agreed.

So let me share the process.

The process starts with sending a resume to some company mail id. He received a mail from the company saying get ready for an email interview along with an application form along with some interview questions which he needs to complete. He completed the answers and emailed them back. Based on the answer to those questions, he was offered a job.

Looks quite ok but then there are few clear signs that it is a scam and the job is not genuine. Here are the symptoms of it.

1. Email not from an Official domain

The email that he forwarded was from the outlook.com domain. No company will use a Hotmail or any other free domain emails for HR employees. So a genuine job offer will always be from an official domain.

So an email from a free email provider for a job is a clear sign of a scam. Still, it can be tough to determine the originality of the domain email being an official domain. One can always register a domain called companyjoboffers.com or companyjobs.com and do such scam.

Note: An email from @companydomain may not be actually from @companydomain, but then Gmail or any other email provider can detect it for you and send it to spam or junk folder by default.

2. An interview process will never be entirely offline

You can rest assured that you will never be offered a job for answering a questionnaire sent over an email. As an employer, you never know who answered those questions.

Interview, where you are not geographically connected, will have a telephonic interview followed by a video call or live video interview. A telephonic interview is also not enough because the person who may be answering the question may not be the same person being offered a job. If I am a job seeker, I can always ask a person to attend my telephonic interview who may be more capable of answering those questions.

So a video call is a bare minimum for a job interview. Remember that even a video call where you are not able to see the other party can be fake and so you should be able to see them and vice-versa. I have seen companies fly you to their destinations before offering you a job.

3. Simple interview questionnaire

If these set of questions can provide you with a job, you have to be really really lucky.

And most (if not all) of the time it has to be a scam and not a lucky offer for you.

Also, the first interview question decides if you will be offered a job or not or rather you are a potential candidate for a scam or not. If you have worked for another company, you may know the Visa process and other such things, and so more often you will not be offered a job.

4. Unprofessional Application form

A one-page application form that looks as bad as this will never be an official application form of a Fortune 500 company.

Even an official application form which can always be downloaded from the official website is not a sign of not a scam, but then a poorly designed application form can be a good sign of things not looking official.

The employment agreement has a sign from the HR Manager, and clearly, the sign does not look like his name.

How they Scam with Fake Overseas Jobs?

The final question is, how you will be scammed? The answer lies in the agreement point number 3.

They will hire some agents here in India who will help you get the Visa clearance, and you have to bear the cost. So you pay for the money.

Conclusion

The best way to know if it is genuine or fake is just to verify it. Make a call to the official number on their website and check the details. If you cannot get in touch with them over the phone, email them using the contact form on the official website or get in touch with them on social media. Remember to avoid the numbers from where you got a call or any other numbers you have in those PDF files.

If you have a smartphone, you can try Truecaller to help find the details of the caller.