How to protect yourself from IT Recruitment Scammers

Reading time: 4 min

In recent times, there has been a rise in fraudulent activities within the IT recruitment industry. Scammers, posing as established and respected recruitment agencies, are coaxing candidates into divulging their credit card details, ultimately scamming them out of their money. Unfortunately, our company has also encountered this issue, with individuals falsely representing themselves as Lucky Hunter recruiters while contacting candidates.

Today, we would like to delve into our candidate engagement approach and provide insights to help you identify and defend yourself against potential scammers.

Motivations behind scammer outreach

Scammers engage candidates for various purposes.

Theft and Sale of Personal Information

Scammers target candidates to collect valuable personal data like names, addresses, and phone numbers, which they can sell later.

Financial Fraud

Scammers might trick you by:

Asking for your bank or card information, pretending they need it for payments and your future salary.
Making you pay them for their services or to speed up your application.
Telling you to pay for study materials, courses, or fake equipment fees.

To help you avoid scams, let's talk about how our agency looks for candidates.

Transparency

Transparency is one of the pillars of our work. We believe successful collaboration with clients and candidates is built upon mutual trust.

When a client reaches out to us, we meticulously collect all the requirements, job specifications, and other relevant details. We then team with the client to create a candidate profile, initiating the search process afterwards.

We use a lot of recruiting channels, including platforms such as AmazingHiring, Github, and LinkedIn, to identify the best talent. Our dedicated team of recruiters meticulously reviews more than 300 resumes daily and engages with qualified candidates.

Learn more about how IT recruitment agencies work.

How we reach out to candidates:

We use the email address provided on your resume for initial contact.
We also connect with candidates through LinkedIn.

Methods we never use for candidate contact:

WhatsApp
Tinder
Personal social media accounts
Registered mail

Our usual conversation initiation process:

1

Introduction
We begin by introducing ourselves and our organisation.
2

Inquiry
We inquire if the candidates are interested in the job.
3

Position details
We provide an overview of the position.

If the candidate expresses interest, we propose a brief video interview to share more comprehensive information about our company and the job role. Following a successful video interview (if the candidate agrees), we introduce them to our company and proceed with the subsequent steps in the hiring process.

How to spot a scammer: 3 red flags

1

Solicitation of banking information
Legitimate recruiters never ask for your banking details or personal information. Their primary interest lies in your professional qualifications and experience.
2

Request for payment
Be cautious if someone claiming to be a recruiter asks you for money. IT recruitment agencies typically receive payments from companies, not candidates. Employment agencies that help job seekers find placements may charge fees – but it is essential to thoroughly research the company and recruiter's authenticity before making any payments.
3

Pressure for a hasty decision
Beware of recruiters who push you into making quick decisions, leaving you little time to verify the information. A reputable recruiter will allow you adequate time to consider your options and assess the legitimacy of the opportunity presented to you.

How to Recognise an Authentic Recruiter: 3 green flags

1

Official Corporate Email Contact
Genuine recruiters often reach out to candidates using their official corporate email addresses. For instance, our agency's recruiters use email addresses that follow a consistent format: name@luckyhunter.io
2

Presence on the Agency's Website or LinkedIn
Legitimate recruiters are usually featured on their agency's official website or LinkedIn page. You can typically find a dedicated section that showcases team members, their email addresses and LinkedIn profiles.
3

No Request for Payment
Authentic IT recruiting agencies are compensated by the companies they work with, not by candidates. The services they provide, including candidate sourcing and communication, are part of their service offerings to client companies and do not involve any charges for candidates.

If You Suspect Being Contacted by Scammers, Follow These Steps:

Verify recruiter information
Double-check the recruiter's details by visiting the official website or their LinkedIn profile. Ensure that their information aligns with the agency's official online presence.
Contact the recruitment agency
If you have reason to believe that the recruiter is not legitimate, take the following steps:
- Capture a screenshot of the suspicious communication or any relevant information.
- Send the screenshot or relevant evidence to the email address provided on the agency's official website.
For example, if you receive scam messages on behalf of our agency, please report them to the following email address: contact@luckyhunter.io
Exercise caution before leaving negative reviews
When confronted with potential scammers, the instinct to alert others and share your experiences online, possibly by posting a negative review on platforms like Google, is entirely understandable. However, it's crucial to recognise that the company might not be a part of fraudulent activity: sometimes malicious individuals exploit a company's brand and communicate with candidates without their knowledge, damaging the company's reputation. Unfortunately, this is the situation we currently face.

To our valued candidates, we kindly request that you carefully assess and evaluate all available information before posting any reviews. We acknowledge that scam messages continue to circulate in our agency's name, and we are diligently working to inform candidates through our website, social media channels, and Google page. Our ultimate goal is to put an end to these scams. One-star reviews are truly disheartening for us and only compound the challenges we're addressing. We implore you to refrain from making hasty decisions. Together, we will win over these scammers and protect our reputation.

The recruiters at Lucky Hunter will find any IT specialist from anywhere in the world. Fill out the form, and we will get in touch with you soon!