Unemployed since the end of November, Jack Lampman has posted his resume on job boards on the Internet as he seeks to find a new job.

But the Brick, N.J., resident is careful: He makes sure his address and telephone number aren't on his resume. His e-mail address is available.

"You don't want people to be able to solicit you through the mail or by phone," said Lampman, 51, who is looking for a technology job as a program or project manager.

In the wild world of the Internet, you never know who's looking at your resume, which is often loaded with personal information. Besides addresses and telephone numbers, it often has work histories and educational backgrounds, tempting morsels of information.

"Job seekers are in the position where they want to distribute their resume so employers see them," said Executive Director Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit public-interest research group in San Diego. "On the other hand, they want to keep it safe from the wrong sorts of people."

Scammers can use job boards to find personal information, she said. Using details such as where you went to school, an impostor can impersonate an employer and get your home address or even your Social Security number.

"Someone can take that resume and they have a road map to your life," she said. "They can impersonate you much more easily and smoothly with that information."

Patrick Manzo, vice president of compliance and fraud prevention at www.Monster.com, agreed that some identifying information, such as date of birth and driver's license number, should never be on a resume.

But details such as an address and telephone number are types of data already found in a phone book, he said.

"In our view, posting a resume is probably one of the best ways you can find a job today. Done properly, it is a safe and effective way to find a job and manage your career," Manzo said. "The point of putting personal information in a resume is to allow people to contact you."

At Monster, people can choose to make their resume public and searchable by the Web site's employer customers. You also can choose to shield it from the eyes of your current employer, Manzo said. Or you can choose to make it private, using it only to reply to job postings.

www.CareerBuilder.com spokes-man Michael Erwin said every e-mail to a job seeker includes a warning to never give a Social Security or credit card number when applying for a job online. www.CareerBuilder.com is partially owned by Gannett Co.

Lampman said he uses an e-mail address as a way for prospective employers to contact him.

"If you don't put enough information, you may not get enough hits from recruiters or it may be difficult to get responses back," said Lampman, who was previously director of field automation at Parkway Corp. The parking management and real estate development company is in Philadelphia.

Bill Gwinnell of Middletown, N.J., who has used the Internet to find jobs in the information-technology field, said he found that some recruiters post jobs that don't exist.

"It is recruiting companies trying to get people into their Rolodex files," he said. "All they are trying to do is increase their network contacts."

Sometimes, scammers also are posting fake jobs on the Web sites, consumer advocates say.

"Unfortunately, many individuals who are looking for work are quite desperate," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. "They might use excellent judgment at other times in their lives, but fail to notice the obvious signs of fraud when seeking work."