PORTLAND, Ore. -- You want a job, you look online, right? Watch out. Fakers are posting hundreds of false job listings, some trying trick you out of your information and possibly even your money.
Cindy Ackerman saw an ad for open positions at Costco in Vancouver. She thought the jobs could work for both her and 21-year-old granddaughter, Kayleigh.
"It says 'apply now.' So, I entered my name, email and phone number," said Ackerman.
As soon as she hit enter, she said, she got a call, but it wasn't from Costco. She said a man calling himself "Will S." gave her a hard-sell pitch for 'career education.'
"'I'm a placement expert,' is what he called himself. He said, 'I can guarantee you a job in two weeks,'" Ackerman said. "He said Costco pays them to recruit people for Costco."
But KATU checked in with Costco. The company said the ad Ackerman responded to is not legitimate.
"It's very frustrating and disappointing," said Ackerman.
KATU tested a Portland Fred Meyer job ad posted on a site called Geebo. Under the Geebo logo, the site reads "Safe Community Classifieds." We sent in our application through the site. Did Fred Meyer get it?
"We did not get your application," said Fred Meyer spokesperson Melinda Merrill.
Merrill said that listing, and the many others posted for Fred Meyer and Kroger on Geebo are impostors.
"You used a site that had taken our job posting and copied it onto their site and then used it to get your personal info," said Merrill.
Soon after we "applied," the email account we used was bombarded with spam emails, and the phone number we used was flooded with marketing calls.
One call came from a man who claimed he was with the "Education Department" at Jobs.com. We asked him for the phone number for the Jobs.com education department. He hung up. The real Jobs.com told KATU they don't have an education department.
"Someone is farming information," said Lonnie Martinez with the Oregon Employment Department.
Martinez said the fakers are most likely trying to gather your information to sell to other companies for marketing. But he said the fakers could also be digging deeper, trying to access your money and your identity.
"You don't know where your stuff just went," said Martinez.
KATU called Geebo for answers. The site sent a statement saying the job ads come from other companies.
"We receive thousands of listings from hundreds of job partners daily. We do not monitor the listings, rather we rely on our user base to keep us updated on issues such as what you have described," the statement said.
The Geebo statement also described the procedures it says the company follows.
"When a complaint is received, we immediately investigate. Sometimes the complaint gives sufficient information such as the URL of the listing or the job reference for our team to immediately check, verify and remove," it said. "If the listing/listings are deemed to be not conforming to our terms of use and are not a valid job listing, we immediately remove the listing, furthermore, we put a filter in our system to prevent the same listing from getting indexed again."
Some of the fake ads on some sites tell job applicants, in small print, that they are agreeing to receive marketing contacts from other companies when they apply.
"It's horrible," said Ackerman.
Merrill, with Fred Meyer, said she has a recommendation for job seekers.
"Our website is really the best place to apply," said Merrill. "There's just no need to take a chance and apply through something you're not sure about."
Martinez, at the Oregon Employment Department agreed.
"Go directly to that company's website. Don't click on the link in that email, because you don't know where it's coming from," he said.
Ackerman said she is concerned for other job seekers who may fall for the fake postings and apply through the false ads, waiting for a call back that will never come and missing out on applying for the real positions.
"I just think it's unethical and horrible, and I'd like to put a stop to it," said Ackerman.
