Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams

Recently we’ve seen a significant rise in jobs scams, often featuring fraudsters impersonating recruitment companies or consultants. 

At PageGroup, we’re doing everything we can to spread awareness of the tactics used by fraudsters to help protect individuals and organizations from scammers using our company or consultant’s name. 

Warning Signs to Look Out For

We’ve compiled a list of the warnings signs to look out for that could indicate you’ve been contacted by a scammer posing as a recruitment consultant or company:

PageGroup “Consultant” or Brand Requesting:

  • Personal financial details.
  • You pay a fee to be put forward as a candidate for a role.
  • Money on behalf of another individual.

Social Media (i.e., LinkedIn/WhatsApp/Telegram) from a Purported Recruitment Consultant With:

  • A lack of activity, information, or contact details on their profile.
  • A suspicious or no profile picture.

Communications of Any Sort Guaranteeing Employment or Income

PageGroup will never request direct payment from a candidate or contact you via WhatsApp, Telegram, or equivalent apps.

All communications from PageGroup or our consultants will be sent from official PageGroup/Michael Page/Page Executive/Page Personnel/Page Outsourcing email addresses. These are:

@michaelpage.com
@mail.pagepersonnel.com
@mail.pageexecutive.com
@mail.pageoutsourcing.com
@e.michaelpage.co.uk
@e.pageexecutive.com
@e.pagepersonnel.co.uk
@mail.michaelpage.ca
@email.page.com
@mail.michaelpageafrica.com
@mail.michaelpage.ae
@e.michaelpage.ae
@e.michaelpageafrica.com
@e.michaelpage.co.za 
@mail.michaelpage.co.za

How to Spot a Scammer Webpage

There’s also been a rise in cases of fraudsters cloning the sites of legitimate recruitment consultancies in an attempt to steal money and/or the personal details of job seekers and hiring managers. 

Here are the key things to look out for: 

  • SSL Certification – This is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection, depicted by a padlock icon to the left of a URL. To check the legitimacy of a site, we encourage you to verify the SSL by clicking this padlock. If a site doesn’t have one, this could be a sign of a scam website. 
  • Missing information – If a site doesn’t have an “About Us” section or contact information, it could be a sign of a scam.
  • URL Check – Check the URL of a site conforms to traditional formats. Look for spelling errors and unusual domain extensions (outside of .com/.ca), or copy and paste the URL into Google, and it’ll show you the company’s legitimate website. 

PageGroup official websites are: 

  • www.michaelpage.ca 
  • www.pageoutsourcing.com 
  • www.pageexecutive.com
  • www.page.com

More Information

For more information on recruitment scams and how to spot them, check out the dedicated page by Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre.  

Please get in touch with us to report a potential scam using any of our brand names (PageGroup; Page; Michael Page; Page Personnel; Page Executive; Page Outsourcing).