Report: job scams soar, other identity theft trends continue

Researchers took a look at reports of identity crime from last year, and what they found may surprise you.

Reports of fake job listings on sites like LinkedIn and Indeed increased by 118% last year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

The nonprofit supports victims of identity crimes and tracks trends throughout the year.

The ITRC looked at information reported by the victims who contacted its organization last year to create its "2023 Trends in Identity Report."

ITRC Chief Operating Officer, James E. Lee, said that artificial intelligence is a part of the problem and plays a part in the drastic increase.

“AI is complicating the ability of individuals to tell if something’s real or fake,” he said. “And any number of accounts of phishing attacks that we’re used to seeing, you know, we used to know the clues; the grammar was bad the logo was wrong, there was – there was usually some telltale sign. Well, AI has cleaned all that up.”

Using AI, scammers can create more realistic sounding and enticing listings, according to the ITRC report. These scams started to become more common at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when more people were looking for remote work.

Identity criminals will ask jobseekers for information that’s common during typical onboarding procedures, like proof that they can work in the United States and banking information for direct deposit, the report said. Lee said to pause before providing any information to potential scammers and instead to call the company directly to ask about the position and if the ad is legitimate.

Another emerging trend shows criminals using fake IDs with real license numbers to stay out of trouble, Lee said. Victims with otherwise spotless records are seeing criminal charges appear on background checks, inhibiting their ability to get jobs or secure government benefits according to the report.

“Driver’s licenses are used now as identification in a wide variety of account creation and just daily transactions,” Lee said. “That driver’s license is very valuable. When something is valuable, the identity criminals, they swoop in.”

Even police officers and bankers who are trained to spot fake IDs can’t always tell the difference, Lee said, making it difficult to catch the criminals in the act.

If you think your identity has been compromised, the ITRC offers free support for victims on its website.

You can read the ITRC's complete 2023 Trends in Identity Report here.