Is Your LinkedIn Interviewer a Chatbot? Beware the Scam
From the mouth of the hoodwinked.
Less than 24 hours ago, I fell hook, line, and sinker for a company on LinkedIn that I was positive had my best interests at heart. Spoiler: they didn’t.
Scammers ask for all sorts of things. Personal data, money, and your valuable time are all up for grabs. Thankfully, I sniffed robbery before I poured my heart out to JankySpammer_Bot_101.
In hindsight, I passed truckloads of signs that yeah, my totally-ordinary LinkedIn interview was a scam. Here are seven.
#1. Strange Emails
As a recent English graduate who has developed a high tolerance for rejection letters, I delighted to receive an email that began with,
Hello,
Your application to the Proofreader job post on LinkedIn has been reviewed. We would like to know if you are interested in this remote job position.
My application, reviewed? Was I interested? The job offered applicants between $25–45 dollars per hour. This, in an industry that pays in entry-level workers in pennies.
Yet, even as I popped the champagne and danced circles in my mother’s living room, something niggled at my subconscious. Three things, actually:
- It was almost too good to be true. $25 minimum for a job that often pays minimum wage is not industry standard.
- Bolded font. Everything was bolded. Why?
- Formatting errors. I noticed (2) instances of incorrect spacing. This, from a publishing company. Clearly, they needed that proofreader position filled ASAP.
Gary the Recruiter left me a Skype address and requested I contact them through their online recruitment office. Grateful for the opportunity, I complied.
#2. Recruiters Who Sound A Lot Like Chatbots
I searched the offered Skype address and sent Gary an invite. He accepted immediately. Giddy with anticipation, I took my time formatting a query that was professional, but friendly.
Here’s what I sent:
Hi Gary. I’m an applicant for the Green Dragon Books Proofreader position, posted on LinkedIn. I’m interested in the job position. If you’d like to schedule a 45-minute interview, I’m happy to do so through here or my email, [email protected]
Instantly, the man responded. Wow, was he fast! Clearly, he was very interested in interviewing me for the position.
Then I read his response:
Hello. Welcome to the interview platform. Interview Time 9:00 AM — 5:00 PM CST. Do indicate a time frame so I can have you scheduled.
A welcome message thinner than a cobweb, followed by a command. Yikes. Maybe this guy was having a bad day. Or maybe he was a chatbot in disguise…nahh.
#3. A Dated Website
After a Spartan chat with the recruiter, I hopped onto the company website and browsed their publications. At first glance, it seemed active. But its thin veneer of legitimacy crumbled under cursory investigation.
- Dated social media posts. Their Twitter feed hadn’t been updated since 2018.
- Dated blog posts. There was a three-year gap between their newest post and the previous.
- Dated products pages. A book listed under “New Products” was published in 2000.
Things were looking less and less legitimate.
#4. The Job Posting Vanishes
When I navigated to the original job posting on LinkedIn, the site threw up an Error page. A seasoned LinkedIn navigator, I attempted to access the job posting directly through their company LinkedIn profile.
Here is the scammer’s Job page, absent of job listings.
According to LinkedIn, Green Dragon Books has 2 job openings. I knew this was true, because I’d carefully read through both of them before applying for the Proofreader position.
Neither job showed up on LinkedIn.
#5. Your Interviewer Ghosts You
I rolled out of bed at 6 AM and plopped myself in front of my desktop. Breakfast was eggs with a side of interview prep. I had an hour until the interview, and dammit if I wasn’t going to be prepared.
7:00 AM. Ready as I’d ever been, I anxiously awaited the interviewer to initiate contact.
7:05 AM. No sign of the recruiter. I went ahead and signaled my presence through Skype chat.
9:00 AM. Radio silence. They hadn’t even entered the chatroom. I closed the chat and emailed the company, asking them if everything was alright.
Their response was as follows:
Hello Cole,
To proceed further you will need to undergo the online interview session via Skype, to get to know the job duties,pay rate and working hours. Do you have a Skype account ?
Oh, the spelling errors. Oh, the inhumanity! They hadn’t even acknowledged that they’d bailed on the initial interview. Either this criminally underpaid intern hadn’t been informed of my interview, or this was a vile scam.
At this point, I was leaning toward scam. Still, I couldn’t think of a reason why anyone would pose as a job interviewer. What use could they possibly have for my editorial qualifications and desired pay rate?
We rescheduled. This time, I confirmed the interview was over Skype chat.
#6. Interviews Over Skype Chat
The less said about this point, the better. Don’t trust companies who interview through online chat services. There’s literally no reason for a legitimate company to do so. Period.
If you must, contact the company through their phone number and confirm there’s a real-life human manning the line.
#7. Your Interviewer Asks You For Confidential or Otherwise Irrelevant Information
I pulled the plug when my so-called recruiter asked me to complete a 25-question survey over text messaging. Nestled within the otherwise typical survey were questions like,
- The Company’s official Banks are Citi Bank And US Bank, what’s the name of your bank to know if it tallies with the company’s payment?
- Are you familiar with Crypto currency ?
A quick Google search of “job scam warning signs” confirmed that yes, I’d spent considerable amounts of time and energy on chasing an employment opportunity that didn’t exist.
I reported the company page through LinkedIn and washed my hands of the despicable business.
Takeaway
Looking back, I felt foolish. How could I have been so naive?
Fact is, I’d duped myself. Yes, the signs were there. Yes, I’d forged ahead despite them. Yes, I’d held onto hope when a “reasonable” person might have called bullshit.
I’m a young, relatively inexperienced college graduate navigating a job market in which employers can afford to be extremely selective with job applicants. I’m exactly the sort of person who would buy into this sort of scam.
Crap.
If you find yourself in a similar position, take heed.
And please. When you uncover the work of a dirty, soul-sucking scammer, report them. Your fellow job seekers will thank you for it!
