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Real or Fake Job, How to differentiate?

Searching for a job can be a tiring task, so we end up filling applications without even considering what the company is about, where its located and other essential information. While many of us stay alert, some might fall into fake job scams. It’s a pretty big thing, people usually fell into these scams and instead of getting a job, they are fooled by these scammers. 

Sometimes it’s the salary that attracts people while on the other hand, they might guarantee a secure future. So how do we find whether a job is fake or real?  Let’s find out how!

1. Too Good to Be True

For the starters, they will offer a salary which would beyond your expectation. For example, if you are a fresher and apply for a job, they will say that you will get Rs 1-1.5 Lac per month for an entry-level job. Well, just think about it by yourself, that is it possible to get paid such high amounts at the start only? If you have received this kind of lucrative offer, you must delete the email and list it as spam straight away.

1. Vague Job Description

If a job is asking some of the basic requirements like “must be 18 or over, must have access to the internet, no experience required, earn 15-20k daily” is it a real job? Well, if no experience is required, what kind of job it is? If you see these kinds of job postings you might mark them as spam, or even ask for a full job description to determine their authenticity. If it’s a fake job, they’ll reply with “don’t worry, full training will be provided” this is an answer.

1. Personal Email ID/ Grammatical Errors in Job Description

Every registered and legitimate company have their official email id such as abc@companyname.com. Some emails from scammers are professionally written, but you will often notice that they are poorly written with many grammatical mistakes and personal email id. If you see a job’s description with grammatical errors, capitalization problems, missing commas and generally bad English as a whole, it indicates that the offer isn’t real. You can find these fake jobs on social media sites too.

Ignore these kinds of jobs as a real job description would be well structured with no errors. They even use an official email id for the conversation. 

1. No Contact Information

If there is a job posting with no contact information or address of the office, it’s a fake job without any questions! You might even receive a letter with no contact information, the company logo might be distorted or of lower quality, this is a warning sign of a fake job. You should keep in mind that any official job offer from a legitimate company is only written on its letterhead which includes their logo and contact information. 

1. Search Results Don’t Add up

Suppose you are asked for an interview, before agreeing to it, you must do thorough research about the company. Check whether it’s a verified company and you will find information on their official website also check for how long the company has been listed. The industry is also filled with some professional scammers who go to the extent of creating their websites, but once you search more, you will get to know the reality.

A fresher can also search companies official formation using Google search. You might even look for complete details like GST, company size, incorporation etc over the internet.

1. You’re Asked to Provide Confidential Information

A job doesnt require your personal or confidential information. However, many scammers will ask for information about your bank account information to set up a direct debit for your wage. They might even ask for information like your Adhaar Card and Pan Card. When you are filling in your personal information, you must ensure that the website is secure by looking at the web address bar. The address should be an ‘https://’ listed site.

1. Anything Involving Transfer of Money

You don’t need to pay for any vacancy if one is applying for a job in a good company. Scammers will send offer letters to the candidate which states that they have been selected for a particular job, for which they will have to pay a certain amount to get the job. When you get such emails, do not pay them because these are fake job offers and one should not accept them.

1. Job Offers You Didn’t Apply For

Well, you received a job offer from a company or post you didn’t apply for. It’s fake. Why would a company randomly select your profile and send you a job offer without any prior communication with you? While applying for multiple jobs, you must keep a record of the ones you have applied for to ensure you can filter through this kind of spam. 

1. Check an original domain name

You can even check the original owner of a website by a tool named https://whois.domaintools.com/. This will ensure that the company’s website is legitimate or not. This tool offers an easy, domain owner lookup to determine the registrant of the target website.  You are required to make an account, but it is free.

Where to look for a company's information?

There are some important places where job seekers should go and do their homework before applying for any job online.

1. Glassdoor is a popular and single largest resource for third-party information on employers. There are reviews by employees, and there's also a section made for the interview process. 

2. Indeed has also recently started asking for reviews from employees and plan to follow in the footsteps of Glassdoor. Even though there’s not much information, but it's still worth digging.

3. LinkedIn is a great place where you can do a company search for their profile and search for employees who are currently working in the organisation. This place will help you see the types of people they hire.

4. Company Website is the best place where you can get information about the organization. You might even research the founders and executive team on LinkedIn to see if they are legit.

5. Facebook/Twitter/Instagram are ye another way to know about the company and to check whether they're active and engaged. Do check out these pages and you will see that the organisation is legitimate or not.

These were a few points by which you can check the difference between a real job and fake jobs. We hope you have understood the difference and be cautious in the future to avoid yourself getting trapped in a scam.