Potential Fraudulent Job Opportunities | Seneca Works | Seneca Students

Our Seneca Works Career Portal job board is a thriving portal for many of our recurring and new employers. We are proud to say that we have thousands of employers register with us and post over 8,500 jobs per year. Even though we take every effort to check and ensure the legitimacy of every posting, from time to time you may come across a job posting that seems too good to be true. In these cases, fraudsters might be trying to access personal information from you to get money and/or steal your identity. These postings tend to advertise a higher income with little or no work required. Trust your instincts and use common sense.

Signs of Fraudulent Job Postings

• You are offered a job without submitting a resume and/or conducting an interview 
• In the initial contact(s) you are asked to:
• Pay for upfront fees (including application and/or training) in order to receive the job
• Transfer money through wire transfers or cash a cheque using your personal bank account
• Provide banking information, social insurance number (SIN) and other personal details
• You are contacted by a non-verified company email address, IM or text message
• No factual information of the company can be found. The company provides no proper job description & organization profile (eg. official website, phone #, HR contact info) for the applicants to reference.
• Company has its representatives present job offers to individuals through the process of conducting informal interviews in non-business professional environment settings (eg. streets, shopping centres, subways) 
• Company contacts you at non-standard working hours
• The job posting claims that the candidates may have no experience necessary in order to be qualified for the job
• Job offers that are worded badly with grammar and spelling mistakes.
• A too good to be true offer (offering a very high salary etc.)

 
Note: Personal information such as banking information and SIN will be requested only AFTER the interview and upon hire/employment offer/receiving a contract (Canadian Revenue Agency requirements).

How to Avoid Fraudulent Job Postings? 

• Retrieve the job descriptions from the company's official website or keep records of the job postings you have applied to for future reference as it will also be helpful in preparing for the interview
• Ensure the email format and telephone number matches that of the company you are contacted by
• Verify the validity of the job postings by conducting research of the official job postings composed by the company in order to ensure the legitimacy of the job posting 
• Contact the company to verify the job postings. If the job posting is legitimate, there should be proper contact information listed for applicants.

For further information on recognizing job posting scams and protecting yourself:

Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services: ontario.ca/page/identify-scam-or-fraud

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/index-eng.htm

Government of Canada - Job and employment scams: ised-isde.canada.ca/site/competition-bureau-canada/en/fraud-and-scams/tips-and-advice/job-and-employment-scams
 
Canadian Immigrant - Five top tips to avoid employment scams: canadianimmigrant.ca/money-and-business/five-top-tips-to-avoid-employment-scams
 
United States Government Federal Trade Commission (Consumer Advice) - Job Scams: consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams#examples

This CBC page contains some tips on how you can avoid job posting scams.

If you see a suspicious job posting on Seneca Works Career Portal, please contact us at senecaworks@senecacollege.ca or 416.764.0343