Beware the Fake Recruiter!

Up until very recently, I’d never taken my LinkedIn profile very seriously. If I’m honest, I only had one because everybody else did. It felt like an online CV and, since I had a job, what did it matter? My profile picture was of me eating a fish.

But all that changed a couple of months ago when the agency I work for redesigned their website. Our ‘meet the team’ photos would be accompanied by our LinkedIn profiles, and so I had to give mine a little bit more love and attention. And I’m glad I did.

With a more professional-looking profile came more opportunities to network and meet people, and soon my inbox was full of smiling faces asking me to connect. I read interesting articles and joined eye-opening discussion groups. I had finally discovered LinkedIn for what it was – professionally useful.

Then, after a few weeks, I started being contacted by recruiters, offering exciting jobs and handsome salaries from all over the world.

Flattering? Yes. Too good to be true? Yes.

With a butter-wouldn’t-melt profile picture, ‘Susana Imbrun’ enquired as to whether I’d like to do some consultancy work for her very successful retail client in Barcelona. Within an hour of her sending that message, her profile no longer existed.

‘Eva Garcia’ needed someone ‘just like me’ to move to Dubai and run a highly successful creative agency. ‘Wow, my LinkedIn profile is amazing!’ I thought, before drying the backs of my ears.

My suspicions really peaked when ‘Assunta Moreno’, Head of Talent Acquisition for Best Company Ever asked me if I’d like to be Professor In Charge Of Everything for a jillion pounds a year. I wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility, and a ‘Head’ of Talent Acquisition would have known that.

In all seriousness, if you’re unsure if a recruiter is real (and perhaps that should always be your first instinct) there are a few websites that can help. Google ‘beware of fake recruiters’ and there’s plenty of advice on how to spot them.

The best trick though, in my humble and inexperienced opinion, is to ‘Google Reverse Image Search’ their profile picture. (Incidentally, I didn’t even know you could do a reverse image search on Google until this whole thing started. So, you know, every cloud…)

Within a few seconds, I found that 'Assunta Moreno' was actually a 29-year-old cupcake enthusiast named Kelly. She wrote her own food blog and baked in the basement of her Queensland home. And 'Susana'? Well actually, her real name is Gleena. She has a good sense of humour, a cat named Tubs, and if you’re in the Harlem area of New York, she’d loved to meet for a coffee. That’s what her Christian Dating profile says anyway.

It’s worth noting that every fake recruiter I’ve been approached by has been female and attractive. We’re simple folk us men. Perhaps, if I were a young lady, profile pictures would have been perma-tanned hunks with handsome and exotic names like Javier or Hercule (or Gary?).

Luckily for me, I have a job that I love in a city that I love (I have to say that, my boss is on LinkedIn) and so my correspondence went no further than the deletion of a dodgy email. But others are less fortunate. Their desperation for a decent opportunity in a world where opportunities fade fast leads them to jump feet first into any inkling of possibility. From that point on they are at the mercy of those who pose behind a computer keyboard hoping to gain at the expense of an innocent person. It’s cruel and heartless and cutthroat and cowardly.

So, to the point of this article: please be careful.

I’m a placid fellow and a pacifist (mainly due to my disproportionately small fists) but to all you fake recruiters, please know this – I hate you. And I hope you fail in your endeavours to prey on the hopes and dreams of people who’ve never done a thing to deserve it.

To all you actual recruiters (some of whom I may have blocked unfairly), I’m sorry, and good luck with your pursuits. I hope you find a person deserving of the role you’re looking to fill.

And I hope you forgive them for any reticence they have in responding to your advances. They may have been hurt before.