I’m sure many of you are accustomed to being approached by recruitment personnel and while many of these will be genuine, I just wanted to warn you all about the potential of fraud.
When I did contract work in the 90s, things were fairly simple. I contacted a couple of agencies, they had a copy of my CV and contacted me with any roles that came up they felt were suitable. I dealt with the same person each time unless they were away and there was a mutual trust based upon performance by both parties.
Things have changed quite a bit since then and we are more likely to be contacted nowadays by recruiters either seeking to refresh their database or with a real vacancy to discuss. Therein lies the problem if we don’t know who we are speaking to.
Before emailing a CV off, it’s really important to check the validity of both the person and company who has contacted you. Sadly it’s too easy to set up a fake account on business social media for example and lure people into divulging personal information in order to be put forward for an exciting new role with a prestigious client (un-named at this stage). Go online and find the agency and ring their head office to check the credentials of the person who has contacted you; yes it takes time, but in the long run may save you a lot of wasted time and worse…
There have even been instances where people have been told that they have been given the role and now need to supply details of their right to work in the UK and have innocently forwarded passport information.
Some have been told to pay a fee for a security check in order to secure a role and of course never see the role or their money again. Others have even given bank detail information so that travel expenses can be paid.
If you suspect that you may be the target of such a fraud, please contact agencies such as Action Fraud who can advise. If you have handed over any bank account information, please contact your bank immediately.
