Job scams surged 118% in 2023, aided by AI. Here’s how to stop them
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Ridvan_celik | E+ | Getty Images Employment scams surged last year, as criminals leveraged artificial intelligence to steal money and personal information from unsuspecting job seekers, experts said. Consumer reports of job scams jumped 118% in 2023 from the prior year, according to a recent report by the Identity Theft Resource Center. Thieves generally pose as recruiters and post fake job listings to entice applicants, then steal valuable information during the “interview” process. Often, they put these phony listings on reputable websites like LinkedIn and other job search platforms, ITRC said, making it tough to disentangle truth from fiction. The typical victim loses about $2,000 A chief danger is divulging information about financial accounts or sensitive personal data (like a Social Security number) that criminals can then use to steal a job seeker’s identity. Consumers reported losing $367 million to job and business opportunity scams in 2022, up 76% year over year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The typical victim lost a “whopping” $2,000, the FTC said. Job scams aren’t the most prevalent fraud: They accounted for only 9% of total identity scams in 2023, second to Google Voice scams, which totaled 60%, ITRC said. (Google Voice scams trick people into sharing a Google verification code, which scammers can use for nefarious ends. They often target people on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.) However, employment scams are an “emerging” threat, said ITRC president and CEO Eva Velasquez. “Job scams have been around since there were jobs,” Velasquez said. “[But] they’ll continue to grow because of a number of external factors that are occurring.” AI and remote work fuel job-scam growth AI advancements are one of those factors: They allow scammers to generate job listings and recruitment messages that look and feel more legitimate, experts said. “AI tools help refine the…
Filed under: News - @ July 7, 2024 1:22 pm