Career site warns of false job listings
By Adam Geller
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Internet job board Monster.com, acknowledging a growing problem for online career sites, is e-mailing millions of job seekers, warning that fake listings are being used to gather and steal personal information.
An e-mail message from Monster, which arrived in many users' computer mailboxes Thursday, cautions that "regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers."
The e-mail, labeled a "critical service message," is going out to all active users of Monster's main site, company spokesman Kevin Mullins said.
Mullins said he did not know exactly how many people that included, but that it is "definitely well into the millions."
Monster, a subsidiary of New York-based TMP Worldwide Inc. and the nation's largest Internet job board, says it has 24.5 million résumés posted on its main site.
The e-mail warning focuses attention on an issue that has long been talked about in the online recruiting business but whose scope or damage is difficult to estimate.
Monster and competitors like CareerBuilder.com and HotJobs.com, post information cautioning users of such dangers and telling them what they can do to protect themselves from false postings.
The job sites generally advise users not to give out their Social Security, credit card or bank account numbers; not to disclose personal information that isn't related to work, such as their marital status; and to be particularly careful of prospective employers from outside the country.
The blanket e-mail by Monster appears to be the first time one of the big job sites has addressed job hunters directly about the potential for identity theft.
Mullins said the warning was not precipitated by any specific incident. Instead, the company is merely trying to protect its users, he said.
Identity theft on the job boards is "a very rare occurrence," Mullins said. "We just want to be out in front of any potential problems."
