Fraudulent Employers

What is ‘Phishing’?

Phishing is the fraudulent act of sending emails, which proclaim to be from a legitimate employer to obtain personal information, such as credit card, bank account, and social security numbers or passwords. You can review more information about phishing and examples here. 

The following are tips to help you identify potential fraudulent employers from phishing:

• Check the employers address using Google maps
• Search for the employer on the Better Business Bureau
• Review the employer's social media outlets and online reviews
• Visit the employer's website and search for their position vacancies
• Search on Handshake to see if other students have previously worked with the employer
• Use your resources at the Kuhlin Hub for Career Design and Connections and contact a staff member for support

The following are tips to help you identify potential fraudulent position postings:

• Requires initial payment, such as payment by courier or wire service
• Provides a vague or unclear position description
• Requests for you to provide confidential information such as a driver's license, social security, or bank account number
• Contact email address does not match the employer's domain
• Asks to submit a picture of yourself
• Contains multiple spelling or grammatical errors

If you identify a potential fraudulent employer or posting due to phishing, please contact the Kuhlin Hub for Career Design and Connections immediately and do not respond or communicate further. You should also forward any information you have to abuse@bgsu.edu for review.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also encourages you to immediately contact the local police. If you have sent money to a potential fraudulent employer, you should contact your bank or credit card company immediately to close the account and dispute the charges. If the incident occurred over the internet, you can file a report with the United States Department of Justice. You can review this and other helpful information from the FTC here.