Are there any genuine employers posting on CraigsList? One gets the feeling that there aren't. I've posted before about Janice at getjudgment.com, to whom I had no recollection of being in contact. She offered an interview, but only after I went to some spurious link and entered a lot of personal information.
The new scam seems to be people replying to mail sent to a blind email address on CraigsList for a job with the supposedly welcome news that as they said earlier (even though I've never been in contact with these people before, nor do they bother to say what exactly the job is or how they know about me) yet oddly enough they know of the perfect job for me and they want to schedule an interview...but only after I have gone to a site where I can get a free copy of my credit report and then email them the result.
Uh, sure. Here, perhaps you'd like the PIN number for my ATM card as well...
Ink Paper Words' Profile
- ~j~
- Pacific Northwest, United States
- In elementary school, I desperately wanted my mother to order books for me from those flyers Scholastic hands out to kids. She refused, citing the "perfectly good library down the street." I exacted revenge by becoming a card-carrying ALA accredited reference librarian. Ha! Take that!
Showing posts with label craigslist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craigslist. Show all posts
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, May 1, 2009
Rejection Has Never Been Sweeter
Mainly because I was the one doing the rejecting. I received email last night requesting an interview from someone whose posting on Craigslist I had replied to. I was excited until I got to the part where they said that before they could confirm an interview time I would have to obtain something called an “employee score,” and I was referred to site www.freeemployeescore.com. Since I had never heard of such a thing and having a hinky feeling about the proposition, I went to the site. Yes, I am well aware that many employers run your social through a vetting service to make hiring decisions, but I have certainly never been directed to conduct this part of the job screening myself. Sorry people, but I do not work for you. If you want to check on a potential employee, do it your own damn self.
Sure enough, the URL in question offers an employment background checking service, purportedly “free.” I was redirected to site www.consumerdirect.com which wanted to charge a fee on a credit card to provide me this “free” service. Perhaps this is so much semantic quibbling, but any charge is not “free.”
I have never understood the logic that says bad credit history = bad employee. It simply does not follow. What is does indicate is that a job is needed, and the person who actually needs a job seems more likely, IMO, to try to hold on to that job. God forbid unemployed people dare to find work. Isn't it more likely that this is a corporate urban legend foisted upon employers by people hawking this service? Come on, be realistic. If an employee were of a mind to commit a crime to obtain money to avoid having a bad rating, this person would, on the basis of his employee score, be preferable to someone who had not thought to do likewise and therefore had a bad score. It occurred to me during the Reagan administration that in that cultural atmosphere, no crime was as bad as the crime of being poor. I understand that the financial industry leaders who so recently needed a government bailout to avoid going belly up probably have excellent credit. That did not prevent them from bilking taxpayers out of millions.
Why does Craigslist attract so many bogus employment ads? Why don't they consider charging a small fee to employers to make sure that postings are for actual jobs and not phishing scams or attempts to charge people for the information on how to start a work at home business? This kind of crap annoys the bejesus out of me precisely because it exploits people who are desperate. Craigslist is a great resource for local information, but these kinds of posts under the guise of offering employment lessens its effectiveness and relevance.
The more I dug for information on getjudgment.com (the mail I received was from the domain getjudgement.com, which begs the question why I should consider them a legitimate employer when they can't even spell “judgment” correctly – I know, I'm a spelling snob. So sue me). Real businesses come up with something when you google them. Real businesses aren't afraid of a little transparency. Real businesses do not refer you to a phishing site before they will consider your candidacy for a legitimate job. Oddly, my outgoing mail client, which hangs on to everything I send until I manually delete it, shows no record of mail sent for this position title either to the various spellings of getjudgment or a Craigslist anonymous email. Ah, well, just one more red flag out of many.
Long story short, I sent my regrets to this “employer.” I am not a fool and value my privacy too much to surrender it on the off chance that I'd cop an interview out of it. Sorry, Janice @ getjudgement.com. Thanks for playing. Try again with some other chump.
Oh, and a whois lookup yields the following data on consumerdirect.com
Registrant Contact:
David Coulter
Pathway Data, Inc. ()
Fax:
3187 Red Hill Ave #100
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
US
Sure enough, the URL in question offers an employment background checking service, purportedly “free.” I was redirected to site www.consumerdirect.com which wanted to charge a fee on a credit card to provide me this “free” service. Perhaps this is so much semantic quibbling, but any charge is not “free.”
I have never understood the logic that says bad credit history = bad employee. It simply does not follow. What is does indicate is that a job is needed, and the person who actually needs a job seems more likely, IMO, to try to hold on to that job. God forbid unemployed people dare to find work. Isn't it more likely that this is a corporate urban legend foisted upon employers by people hawking this service? Come on, be realistic. If an employee were of a mind to commit a crime to obtain money to avoid having a bad rating, this person would, on the basis of his employee score, be preferable to someone who had not thought to do likewise and therefore had a bad score. It occurred to me during the Reagan administration that in that cultural atmosphere, no crime was as bad as the crime of being poor. I understand that the financial industry leaders who so recently needed a government bailout to avoid going belly up probably have excellent credit. That did not prevent them from bilking taxpayers out of millions.
Why does Craigslist attract so many bogus employment ads? Why don't they consider charging a small fee to employers to make sure that postings are for actual jobs and not phishing scams or attempts to charge people for the information on how to start a work at home business? This kind of crap annoys the bejesus out of me precisely because it exploits people who are desperate. Craigslist is a great resource for local information, but these kinds of posts under the guise of offering employment lessens its effectiveness and relevance.
The more I dug for information on getjudgment.com (the mail I received was from the domain getjudgement.com, which begs the question why I should consider them a legitimate employer when they can't even spell “judgment” correctly – I know, I'm a spelling snob. So sue me). Real businesses come up with something when you google them. Real businesses aren't afraid of a little transparency. Real businesses do not refer you to a phishing site before they will consider your candidacy for a legitimate job. Oddly, my outgoing mail client, which hangs on to everything I send until I manually delete it, shows no record of mail sent for this position title either to the various spellings of getjudgment or a Craigslist anonymous email. Ah, well, just one more red flag out of many.
Long story short, I sent my regrets to this “employer.” I am not a fool and value my privacy too much to surrender it on the off chance that I'd cop an interview out of it. Sorry, Janice @ getjudgement.com. Thanks for playing. Try again with some other chump.
Dear Ms. Walsh:
I wanted to thank you for your interest in interviewing me for your Administrative Assistant position as advertised on Craigslist. I must however regretfully decline your invitation.
The reason for my refusal centers on my belief that any employer who finds it necessary, in the middle of an economic depression, to conduct a credit check prior to employment or even further consideration is, quite simply, unworthy of my abilities.
I wish your office the best of luck in locating a master-level incumbent with over 30 years of work experience for your position.
File copy: adsl-68-121-22-201.dsl.irvnca.pacbell.net
Oh, and a whois lookup yields the following data on consumerdirect.com
Registrant Contact:
David Coulter
Pathway Data, Inc. ()
Fax:
3187 Red Hill Ave #100
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
US
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Ranting and Raving on CraigsList
I recently discovered this section on CL and I have to say that I am floored. Perhaps my AOL experience both being farmed out to the Community Action Team for a week when I did tech support for them and in a later stint as a volunteer message board monitor at key word Iran has given me a skewed perspective -- I don't know. But ...eww. Just ewwwww. Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude (sure, everyone says that) but why are there so many icky posts and pictures there?
The bulk of the posts seem to fall in these main categories:
bashing opposing political parties
posting pictures of ugly people having sex
racist drivel
complaining about women on the personals pages aren't pretty enough, or don't have large enough breasts or are too fat and therefore have no business appearing in public
posts telling various minority groups that they need to go somewhere else
I know the illusion of anonymity on the Internet leads people to write and post things they wouldn't dream of saying in public, but come on. Are we really all so childish? Get a grip, people and try exhibiting a little decency.
The bulk of the posts seem to fall in these main categories:
bashing opposing political parties
posting pictures of ugly people having sex
racist drivel
complaining about women on the personals pages aren't pretty enough, or don't have large enough breasts or are too fat and therefore have no business appearing in public
posts telling various minority groups that they need to go somewhere else
I know the illusion of anonymity on the Internet leads people to write and post things they wouldn't dream of saying in public, but come on. Are we really all so childish? Get a grip, people and try exhibiting a little decency.
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