That's a red flag.
Hi there,
Please stop and read this to save yourself from a future of frustration and compromised information.
It's hard to find a job right now; we know it, you know it, and scammers know it too. That's why they're preying on jobseekers — they're hoping you'll divulge personal information and fraudulent payments during your most vulnerable moments.
Did you know?
- In January, 1,200+ members of our online creative community admitted to falling victim to a job scam.
- In the first half of 2024 alone, losses to job scams totaled more than $220 million according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Freelance art director Myldwin Pierre recently sat down with me to share his gutsinking experience of accepting a role with a Fortune 500 company that ended up being a total scam.
I'm sharing Myldwin's story to illustrate just how sophisticated these bad actors have become and how difficult they can be to identify, even for the internet-savvy among us. Please take a moment to read it, and make note — in permanent ink — of the red flags so you're not these scammers' next victim.
If you learned something new from this story, check out our other most popular blogs from 2024! I write them to educate and delight our talent community (that's you), so dig in 😊.
If you have any topics you'd like me to cover in the future, please drop them in the comments.
Best,
Leveling Up Your Freelance Career in 2025
Tips from a longtime freelancer on improving your freelance business.
Celebrating and Honoring Women's History Month
Of all our placements that disclosed gender, approximately 57% are female. ♀️
46% of employees say the top reason they stay with a company is work/life balance.
Did you know the median time that wage and salary workers have been with their current employer is 3.9 years? In our recent poll, our creative community shared what compels them stay in a role for the long haul — and what makes them cut ties.
翻译：
3D Character art, Prop art, Stylized, or otherwise.
1mo(what if we just y'know, shook hands in person again?)
Writer/Editor | Communications | Project Management
1moFrom my perspective, unemployed people are under siege. I've been targeted three times since my layoff six weeks ago. It's gotten to the point where I'm scrutinizing every phone call and every text. I worry that I don't know what's "real" anymore. All three times, the scammers masqueraded as recruiters for large overseas corporations that purportedly are expanding in the U.S. They say they need to get administrative/logistical personnel hired in the area as soon as humanly possible.The positions supposedly pay $32 per hour. I've done a lot of interviewing, hiring, onboarding, etc., and the scammers didn't miss a beat. They are organized, thorough and convincing. Hopefully a few folks will read this and be forewarned of this particular scam. It's tough to find a decent job these days, especially in the communications arena, and this nonsense adds insult to injury. Good luck to all the jobless folks right now!
Sr. Frontend Software Engineer, Accessibility
1moI've had this happen to a friend before and it was awful. So glad you're bringing awareness to this! Speaking of, are y'all actually hiring? I see a post on linkedin jobs but nothing on your careers page.
B2B Tech Content & Editorial Strategist | SaaS & Cloud Content | Operations Management & Process Optimization
1moI just posted a seeking work post and with 10 minutes was hit up by 11 “recruiters” wanting to chat, when in reality they wanted to sell resume writing. The biggest two red flags I noticed: 1. Their profiles were all created this month. Other than this, at first glance they looked good: lots of connections, realistic photos, etc. One was even impersonating a real hiring manager at Amazon like in this case. 2. Most of them did not message me directly, but reshared my post with a comment directed at me. Looking at their profiles they were doing this over and over with anyone posting they were looking for work.
Just had one the other day, as soon as they replied I just said sorry not a fit for me and blocked them report the post to the group admin. was posted like a local person looking for some graphic support. UGGG!