Employment fraud

Employment fraud is an attempt to defraud people who are seeking or performing employment by giving them a false hope of better employment, often with higher wages. Employment fraud involves activities such as fraudulent representation of income to a borrower who claims self-employment in a non-existent company or who claims a higher position such as that of a manager in a real company. It also includes promises such as easy hire, easy work, high wages for unskilled labor, flexible hours, and a small number of hours paired with a lot of free time.

Recruitment fraud involves persons misrepresenting themselves as acting on behalf of an employer to offer fictitious job opportunities. The fraud is generally conducted through the internet, such as through false and illegal "copy-cat" websites or through unsolicited emails claiming to be from the employer.

The perpetrators will usually ask recipients to complete recruitment documentation, such as job application forms, terms and conditions of employment or visa forms. The company name and/or logo may be included (without authority) on the documentation. There are usually various requests for personal information, such as address details, date of birth, CV, passport details, bank details. Candidates are requested to contact other companies/individuals such as lawyers, bank officials, travel agencies, courier companies, visa/immigration processing agencies etc. Email correspondence is often sent from (or responses requested to) free web-based e-mail accounts such as yahoo.com, yahoo.co.uk, gmail.com, hotmail.com, hotmail.co.uk, or live.com. The perpetrators frequently use mobile or platform telephone numbers beginning with +44(0)70 instead of official telephone numbers from the company they are pretending to represent. The perpetrators ask the candidate to make certain payments to progress the job application, for example, in respect of work permits, visas, and travel arrangements. Genuine employers do not request money transfers or payments from applicants to secure a job, either as an employee or as a contractor.

One type of employment fraud happens when a contractor is hired for a duration, verbally promised additional compensation, and then has the compensation and the evidence denied for the purposes of terminating the contract with the contractor.

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