Question about the google hangouts "scams"

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Cindy Medford

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I got the normal letter in today stating that I have an interview with a company and to get on google hangouts to do this first online interview. Clearly the Google hangouts interview was a red flag for me but I was wondering, aside from wasting your time.... is there anything else that makes these a "scam"? I mean, clearly someone with any common sense would take any position offered and use the old rule of it it sounds too good to be true.... it probably is. But I was wondering if there were some way to get a virus or something by going to one of these "interviews". I just ask because in today's technology world, I don't want to miss a potential real job because I was too cautious to accept an online interview. Now clearly I know if the job turned out to be one of those work from home jobs..... or I am sending you a check to go buy equipment with and you send me what you don't use things are scams. I know not to give personal information out. But are there other dangers? I do t have a google hangouts account and have no idea what info they can get from it. But I have considered going to one of these "interviews".... just to see what they say. If it is not a legit job, I would like to think I would have enough sense to figure it out and could leave immediately. The email I got this morning was clearly a scam. It came from a yahoo or google email address rather than a company server. When I asked which company it was for, they said CVS pharmacy..... which I know is a legit company but am sure they have a cvs.com email server that a legit job offer would have come from. So clearly that one was a scam. I am very curious as to what they say though....lol

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about 9 years ago

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Ask Emily !

#askemily

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Hi Cindy! This is a great question. There are a number of ways to tell if something is a job scam. I have this great list here:

Look out for anything that's too good to be true. If they reached out to you (and you didn't apply!), if the pay is too good to be true, if you got the job without having to do much, these are all signs of a scammer preying on peoples' hope.
Look out for extremely vague job listings. If there are no real qualifications or requirements, it's likely that they don't care who applies because they're trying to scam applicants.
Look out for unprofessional messages. If there are many typos, weird misspellings, grammatical errors, (i instead of I, "Human resources" instead of "Human Resources", no space following the period after a sentence, etc.) -- this could point to the fact that they're trying to scam you.
Look out for online interviews. Google Hangouts are very popular with scammers because they don't require any proof of validity. Anyone can pretend to be anybody on Google Hangouts. Make sure you research any company that asks you to do an online interview.
Look out for emails sent from a generic email account. Real companies will send out emails from their company's domain (for example, Jobcase will email you from an email address that ends in @jobcase.com) whereas a generic email address ends in @gmail.com, or @yahoo.com. These emails, again, can be made by anybody and require no proof. Make sure you do the research even if the email address looks legit, because scammers will often purchase similar-looking websites or domains to email from (for example, adding a hyphen or adding or removing one letter of the company's name).
Google EVERYTHING that looks suspicious. If company names don't add up, if there's no online presence, if you can't find enough information to make a decision it's probably something to be avoided. Real companies have an online footprint, you can find Glassdoor reviews or Yelp reviews or even references to the company that are not job postings. If there's no information online, be wary.
DO NOT GIVE OUT PERSONAL INFORMATION! Don't give anyone your bank account information or social security number until you know for sure they are legit!
DO NOT ACCEPT CHECKS FROM STRANGERS! Take any check you've received to the bank immediately to get it looked over to make sure it's not a fake check. US jobseekers lose millions of dollars in fake check scams every year.
Look out for any job asking you to pay for anything. Some companies do require a small fee for background checks, but if you're not sure if that's legit ask for help first!
Trust your gut. If you think it's iffy it probably is. It is always better to be safe than to be sorry. Please let me know if you have any questions!

So at the end of the day, JUST google hangouts isn't necessarily the sign of a job scam (though in the years I've been doing this I have never, not once, heard of a legit job asking for a google interview) -- but when paired with the fact that they reached out to you before you applied, or they offered you the job before you even interviewed, or if they have a generic email or typos in their listing, THOSE are the ways you know it's a scam. And your gut knows! So if your gut says it's fishy, I say listen to it. I'm glad they didn't fool you!

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