Craigslist Job Scams

Craigslist is a great Internet resource, a huge, largely free classified ad service for people who want to buy or sell a car, a DVD, or a house or find someone to repair a computer or lay bricks or someone who needs such a service. Craigslist is very useful, but you have to be careful, because it is somewhat like a bulletin board at a neighborhood coffee shop. There is no backup, no protection for people who use it, aside from their own common sense.

As I have been looking for a job in recent months, I have found that many, if not most, employment ads on Craigslist are scams. So, if you find yourself looking at job ads on Craigslist, be careful about scams. Since my field is education, I am particularly experienced with education scams on Craigslist, but I am sure that the same general scams can be found in other fields.

In fact, there is one scam of lawyers that is so wild that the author of the report on it has been accused of making up the story (here).

You may be wondering what I mean by a scam. I mean an ad offering the readers something, a job, but in fact ending up taking something from them.

The most common Craigslist employment ad scams

The most common scam among education employment ads on Craigslist involves an ad for a tutor. If you respond (as I have), you are instantly "hired" without bothering with such niceties as certification, résumés, or FBI background checks. The family will be coming to the United States in a month or so. You will be sent a check for your work for a month in advance (typically, $50 an hour). To cut down on the paperwork, they will include in the check the pay for a "nanny." You are to deposit the check and send the "nanny" a check for her pay in advance.

I got such a response, and then I got curious and Googled "Craigslist"+"tutor"+"scam." Click here for the search results page, which the day I am writing this returns 24,500 results, including this. Basically, this story involves a cashier's check for $4,200, which the family had purchased on a previous trip. They will send that check for the recipient to deduct his pay ($1,400), and... You get the picture? Well, that's all you get. You do get a check, which you deposit, you send someone else money from that check, and you wait. The original check bounces, and you never hear from the family again.

I found another scam when I responded to an ad for an administrative assistant's position in an attorney's office here in Lakeland, Florida. Since the part-time job paid about $30,000 a year, I was suspicious. Then, I received an email with a link to download a program to complete the application for the job (and that link turned out to be to a website in an Eastern European country). Would that program have allowed me to apply for the job, or would it have installed spyware on my computer? I Googled the website and found the answer.

Several Craigslist ads for writing or editing positions turn out to be offers to pay for a subscription service to find out about writing or editing positions. Generally, when I want to know about a job, I assume that I will be paid money, not that I will have to pay. (By the way, here is a website - reputable, as far as I know - that offers daily updates of writing and editing opportunities... for free.)

When I replied to another Craigslist ad, I was told that, unfortunately, the position had already been filled. Then, my email-box was filled with all kinds of junk. Since I use several different email addresses (you can get free email addresses at Gmail among other services), I could tell that the floods of junk were most likely associated with that particular ad.

Surely there are some legitimate job ads on Craigslist. Let's look at some ways to recognize the scams.

How to recognize Craigslist employment ad scams

If the job sounds too good to be true, it probably is. How about a job as a "Website Designer," for which "Computer experience is desirable but not necessary"? How about the ad, previously mentioned, for a part-time job paying $30,000 a year?

Lately, there have been jobs in Craigslist sites across the country for "Library assistants," with pay "$16.65 to $18.83/hour." This position ($18.83/hour equals over $750/week), "requires a high school diploma or GED equivalent." Strangely, libraries in North Carolina, Maryland, and Arizona are currently offering the same job, same description, and same pay.

Ask yourself if the ad suggests any knowledge of the job or the area. There is a Craigslist section for Lakeland, Florida (where I live), as there is for Tampa, less than fifty miles to the west, and Orlando, less than fifty miles to the east. The state of Wyoming (the tenth largest state in area, but the smallest in population) has only one Craigslist section for its somewhat more than half a million people spread over 97,818 square miles. If you find a job listing for "Wyoming," with nothing more specific, you might wonder. Similarly, when, in a Craigslist listing of jobs in Baton Rouge, I saw an ad for a job in "Baton City," I had my doubts.

Once you find an interesting job, check it with Google, as I did that job for a library assistant. I entered "library assistant" and "$16.65 to $18.83/hour." All three, by the way, had a Gmail return address, not a more likely address for a public library, perhaps a ".gov" or ".edu" or ".org" domain.

If the ad has an email address other than the anonymized Craigslist addresses, Google that address. I once found that someone was looking for a tutor for "my kid coming from Spain this summer" in over thirty cities in the United States. Either he had a lot of kids, or they were going to be on the road most of the summer.

Watch out for strange English in a Craigslist ad. I once saw an ad for a tutor for "my son, who enjoys reading her books but needs some help." I Googled those words and discovered that the sexually ambivalent kid needed a tutor in about two-dozen cities. Another odd construction is "Apply within to" an email address.

When you are looking at the index page for Craigslist ads (such as "Education/Teaching Jobs"), look for "img" in the listing. That tells you simply that there is a picture on the page. If you are shopping for a car, you would expect an image, but what kind of pictures will an employment ad have?

If you click through to the ad, if you have a slow Internet connection, you may notice that the text of the ad itself is a picture. If you do not notice this, then try to select and copy a few words from the ad to run through Google. You'll notice that you cannot, because the text is a picture, so you cannot check it in Google.

Some ads have a link. You click on them, and... And, there is no telling where that link will take you. Once, I ended up on a page that pumped spyware into my computer. More commonly, I am offered a form to fill out, including a blank for my Social Security number. I have been taken to forms that are not about applying for a job but about applying for cell phone service.

Here's a poptest on Craigslist job scams

OK, class, clear off your tables... Oops, just having a flashback there (I am looking for a job in education). But, look at some actual Craigslist ads, and decide whether to respond to them.

Let's look at an ad that I have seen many times on Craigslist. Here are a couple of different openings:

Hello, I am seeking for a Good Tutor that will teach my ten years old daughter:

Seeking someone to take my kid in:

Now, here is the main part of the ad. I have seen this identical list (including "Italic" - perhaps "Italian"?) in dozens and dozens of ads - always all in capitals:

MATHS, ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, GERMAN, ITALIC, CHINESE, COMPUTER SCIENCE, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY, ARTS, SINGING, DANCING, BIBLE STUDY, MORALS. PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY

Oh, and the best part is in the ending:

Apply now if you can teach in any of the above subject and get back to me via email, my email address is below. I offer a competitive starting salary of $56/hr

I have seen this ad with starting salary of $65 an hour. I feel I just lost all my readers, who are heading to Craigslist to get themselves hired.

Where to begin pointing out the scam or scum of this Craigslist ad? Strange English, check. Qualifications? Pay? How many educators make $65 an hour? They may deserve that, but they don't make it.

If you can read this article, you can probably tutor on the level of a "ten years old" at least one of those topics. By the way, how many "kids" study six languages?

That ad seems so blatantly wrong that I wonder if anyone falls for it. (Yes, get hired to teach Italic and philosophy, get a check for your pay and the pay of a nanny, and...) But, I have seen it on lists of Craigslist job ads for Seattle and Atlanta, two cities where you have to pay to place a job ad.

Here is another ad, well, one paragraph of about ten in the ad:

EDUCATION: Bachelor's Degree with preliminary licensure in anticipated area of teaching responsibility and completion of initial license within 5 years. If a teacher has obtained a waiver to teach in an area in which they do not have a license they must apply annually for a waiver (2 year limit) and complete the requirement for either preliminary or initial license.

Or, how about an ad for a "tutor to help me learn Czech," or "a violin teacher," or "a fencing coach"?

If you are running a scam with your Craigslist ad and not seriously looking for an employee, you want to reach anyone in the almost hundred thousand square miles of Wyoming, or anyone who can teach dancing or conduct Bible study. On the other hand, if you are looking to hire a licensed teacher, you are going to spell out the requirements of that license. There is a big difference in looking for a teacher of Czech and for teachers of six other languages. How many people will respond to an ad for a violin teacher or a fencing coach? I would imagine that only serious violinists and fencers would apply to what would most likely be a serious job offer.

How to avoid a Craigslist job scam

The only surefire way to avoid being scammed with an ad on Craigslist is not to respond to any ads. Just use your best judgment. Be aware, be cautious, and please, if you know of any real job openings, drop me a line.

I need to emphasize that I am quite a fan of Craigslist. I've helped friends sell everything from a jeep to a collection of antique barometers on Craigslist, and I had great luck helping friends advertise a garage sale on Craigslist. But as the sad news of "Craigslist killers" makes clear, Craigslist is a wild, largely unregulated site that is not for the faint of heart or the easily convinced... or led astray.