Be Aware: Phishing Scam Involving Fraudulent Job Postings

By

IBM has become aware of a few incidents where criminals have used corporate brands to post fictitious job descriptions and make fraudulent job offers. In some cases, these individuals may ask for money, banking details, or other personally identifiable information.

These scams have become more sophisticated and can appear as legitimate recruitment activities from well-known companies and often appear through third-party websites or direct email to prospective employees.

This scam, or ‘recruitment fraud’ as it is known, is becoming increasingly common.

IBM takes this matter extremely seriously and will actively work to reduce instances of our brand being used as part of these fraudulent, criminal activities.

At no point would IBM ever ask for money, credit card, or bank account information to complete a job application. Great caution should be shown when sharing personal information and we hope that by highlighting these developments, unsuspecting individuals will not be deceived by these scams.

Please ensure that any communications you receive directly from IBM are only sent by e-mail addresses ending in ibm.com. In addition, please ensure that any communications you send directly to IBM are only sent to e-mail addresses ending in ibm.com.

Applications for job posts advertised through our IBM Careers job search provide a secure portal for you to enter your details as part of our standard recruitment processes.

 

Here are a few ways to identify common phishing scams:

  • Be cautious of generic emails — Scammers try to cast a wide net by including little or no specific information. Always be wary of emails which seem overly generic.
  • Incorrect domain names or email addresses — Check for misspellings of IBM or non-IBM email addresses (i.e., gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.). IBM approved emails that come directly from IBM will always come from e-mail addresses ending in ibm.com.
  • Request for financial information or payments — IBM recruiters will never ask prospective employees for payment to apply to a position or as a condition of employment.
  • Equipment for your new job – IBM will never ask prospective employees for payment to secure equipment upon joining.
  • The “perfect” job — A job posting which states extremely high compensation for a position that requires “no skills or experience,” may seem too good to be true, and is likely to be fraudulent.

 

5 Print