Organised criminals are on Linkedin and out to get you

By Neil Patrick

Inadequate cyber security has enabled an explosion of online fraud. Yesterday the BBC reported that online fraud and computer misuse is now the largest category of crime happening in the UK today. There were over 5 million cases reported in the last year and probably many more which went undetected.




Social media is the new hunting ground for criminals and fraudsters. And they are exploiting it with virtual impunity because the platforms are simply not doing enough to counter this threat to users.

Worse, police resources are just not large or capable enough to combat a problem which is often conducted from outside their jurisdictions. So we have to take care of ourselves and do our bit to protect our online friends as well.

Criminals are lurking even in places we’d not expect to find them. Like Linkedin. Here, fake or misleading profiles are used to create aliases that are then used to commit fraud on unsuspecting victims.

Security specialists Symantec recently investigated LinkedIn. Its investigation uncovered dozens of fake accounts on the social network, across a variety of industries.

I was shocked. Not that they found some. But that they found so few. I’d expect them to do better than this because even my cursory review suggests there are not dozens of these but thousands.

Depending on the nature of the fraud intended, the fake profile will vary. Some aim to acquire sensitive intelligence information from government employees. Others have more humble crimes in mind such as phishing or email scams. But one which has had fatal consequences is sexploitation. This has already resulted in at least one suicide by the victim.

I don’t know how extensive Symantec's project was, but it took me about 5 minutes to uncover a whole heap of fake profiles without any of Symantec’s technology or resources.

You might think that anyone stupid enough to get caught like this deserves all they get. That you’d never be lured into such a trap. But it’s happening all the time. So much so that the government have invested in this film which warns of the dangers:

An increasingly common tactic is to set up a fake profile as a recruiter. Posing as recruiters, the fake accounts enable hackers to see your personal network and gain the trust of those in it.

By making these connections, criminals can entice users to give up personal details, direct them to malware-laden websites and, if they can get their email addresses, launch phishing campaigns - targeted emails that aim to steal personal information.

Linkedin is simply not doing enough to combat this problem. When challenged about it, they said:

"We investigate suspected violations of our Terms of Service, including the creation of false profiles, and take immediate action when violations are uncovered.

We have a number of measures in place to confirm authenticity of profiles and remove those that are fake. We encourage members to utilise our Help Center to report inaccurate profiles and specific profile content to LinkedIn."

Linkedin’s processes are clearly not working well enough to eliminate this problem. They say they ‘encourage members to report inaccurate profiles’. I’ve not once seen a message from them about this. It’s clearly something they’d rather not talk about more than they must, because it reflects badly on their platform.

So we should follow some basic common sense rules to avoid being scammed:

• Treat all invitation requests from people you don’t know as suspicious until you are satisfied they are genuine. Look for them on other social media sites. Google them. See who else they are connected with. Only accept the invitation when you are satisfied they are genuine.
• If you are still not sure, cut and paste their profile summary into Google. This way you can see if it has been lifted from someone else’s (a common trick).
• Understand if your work makes you potentially a high risk person. This includes if you are employed by a large organisation, including government agencies; if you have a position of seniority and influence; if you are a high net worth individual.
• Review the settings on your Linkedin connections. In your profile privacy settings, you may choose to make your connections not visible to anyone else.
• Treat invitations to connect from alleged recruiters with caution. Few recruiters that are genuine actively seek to connect with jobseekers. They just don’t need to because they can see all they need to without actually being connected with you.
• When you encounter a suspicious profile report it to LinkedIn. They do take such things seriously and they will take action. I know because I’ve done it.

And if you need any more encouragement to improve your LinkedIn profile, this has to be it. Often the first suspicious aspect of a fake profile is scantiness of information (or clothes). Putting up information which is verifiable and credible about yourself is one way to distance yourself from those you really don't want to know or resemble.

Recruiters need you…but do you need them?

By Neil Patrick

Over the last few days I have been spending a lot of time talking to recruiters about their businesses.

And I discovered things about them which are not typically well understood by job seekers.

Since they hold the keys to many job opportunities, I think it’s worth knowing a little about the different types of recruitment firms and how they function. If we feel they have not served our interests well, it’s not because they are wicked or unprofessional people (even if you have had some unhappy experiences), it’s because they are distinctly different types of businesses.

And of course because we are not their clients, we are their voluntary raw material.

Their business model determines how they behave with candidates

Different businesses function in different ways. So if you know what type of recruiter you are dealing with, you’ll be much better placed to understand what to expect and whether you should invest a lot or a little of your time in dealing with them.

How do you know what type of recruiter you are dealing with? If you ask them and they tell you, ‘I’m a head-hunter’, or ‘I’m a contingency recruiter’, what’s the difference?

And most importantly, what is the likelihood of each one actually landing you a job?

Here’s my five minute briefing which I hope will answer these key questions.

Placement agencies that charge you a fee

These agencies collect a fee from you, in exchange for arranging the entire placement process with potential employers. They typically handle lower-level jobs.

Many people have been burned by these types of agencies sometimes losing thousands of pounds. These types of companies prey on desperate job-seekers who have little or no other information at their disposal.

Any recruiter that asks you for any fee means that you should treat them with the utmost caution. Better still run a mile in the opposite direction!

Contingency based agencies

Contingency based agencies are also known as employment agencies and commonly recruit for administrative level jobs.

They seek suitable candidates by matching your qualifications and skills with their client’s requirements. If the criteria match, an interview is conducted followed by a background check and the taking up of references.

Some employment agencies charge a flat fee to the client company, while others take a percentage of the candidate’s first year’s salary. In most cases, the candidate serves a probationary period and the agency is only paid once you’ve successfully served your probationary period.

Now the bad news. Contingency based agencies are usually competing with others to place their candidate. And thus it often ends up as a numbers game. Their view is that putting as many candidates forward as they can gives them best chance of success.

Contingency agencies are also dealing with the lower end of the salary scale. So their fees are also much smaller than firms dealing with executive and managerial roles. For a candidate, this means you cannot expect much if any support from the agency and that you will likely be one of many candidates they find and put forward.

So what are the numbers? A contingency recruiter will typically take a fee of 15-20% of the first year’s salary.

If a contingency recruiter contacts you, what are the odds of you getting hired? 1 in 10 was the figure quoted to me. Sometimes it can be as low as 1 in 25. And if multiple agencies are involved, the figure may be even lower.

Retained search agencies

Retained agencies usually handle senior positions. These agencies are also known as executive search firms. The fee that a client company pays to a retained search agency is non-refundable and a part of it is typically paid in advance for carrying out the extensive searching needed. The remaining amount is paid once the client company hires an employee.

A retained search firm is a different proposition for the candidate. Typically, only 3-5 candidates will be put forward for interview with their client. And the agency will want to try and ensure that every single one is a good fit for their client. They also typically have a solus contract, so no other firms are involved. If you are approached by a retained agency, you should take it much more seriously than a contingency recruiter.

A retained search agency may well receive as much as 30% of the candidate’s annual salary as a fee. So for a £100,000 a year post, that’s £30,000. If you are dealing with a retained search agency, it’s not unreasonable for you to expect and receive some good support and help from them, assuming they consider you to be a good fit for the role.

If you are put forward for interview by a retained agency, then your odds are around 1 in 4 of getting hired.

Outsourcing

In the UK, James Caan (known for his Dragons' Den role on BBC television) was the first to develop Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) in the 1990s and still offers global RPO solutions with his business partners Jon Bennett and Rachel McKenzie through his company, HB Retinue.

The popularity of RPO continues to grow as HR teams seek to spend more of their time on strategic activities rather than the fluctuating needs of their employer to find and hire new staff.

Outsourced recruitment specialists also suit small organizations without the facilities to recruit. Typically, a formal contract for services is negotiated with a specialist recruitment consultancy. Recruitment process outsourcing may involve strategic consulting for talent acquisition, sourcing for select departments or skills, or total outsourcing of the recruiting function.

The solo headhunter

These are similar to retained search agencies, but work on their own. From a candidate’s point of view, they have a great deal to offer. Although they do not have the resources of a larger firm, they work on a small number of assignments at one time.

They may arrange a meeting or a formal interview between their client and the candidate and will usually prepare the candidate for the interview and help negotiate the final deal.

A good solo headhunter will expect to place around one in three of their candidates.

Strategic talent acquisition

This may sound like a load of jargon, but it’s a distinct category of specialised recruitment. The way this works is that these people aim to secure a team with specific skills from a competitor. They thus set out to acquire a complete team that enhances the value of the business, whilst reducing that of their rival(s).

Such people are often an integral part of a firm’s management team and are found in specialist areas such as financial trading, sales and technology. If you're currently unemployed, it’s unlikely you’d be targeted, but if you work in a high performing business in these sectors it’s a distinct possibility.

The success rates are also correspondingly high…congratulations, you’re in demand, so you are in the driving seat!

Temp agencies

Sometimes temp agencies are also called staffing agencies. They hire candidates to fill temporary positions. This may be due to seasonal increases or an employee leaving the organization on a temporary basis e.g. for maternity leave. Usually, the client pays an hourly rate for the candidate it hires. The temp agency will pay the candidate’s wages, benefits etc. and add this fee to the bill they send the client each week or month.

Only a minority of candidates will be interested in short-term contracts. So if you are willing to take up such a post, you’ll likely have fewer competitors than for a permanent position. And there’s a hidden bonus too… many part time hires end up becoming full time employees, either in the same post or another which opens up whilst they are on contract.

Niche recruiting agencies

Specialized niche recruiters seek staff with a narrow specialty. Because of their focus, these firms can very often produce superior results due to their ability to channel all of their resources into networking for a very specific skill set. This specialization allows them to offer more jobs for their specific demographic, which in turn attracts more specialized candidates from that specific demographic. These firms invest resources and time in building large candidate databases.

Therefore, if you have a specialised skill, then building a relationship with a niche recruiter is an excellent long-term career investment. These niche firms tend to be much more inclined to develop ongoing relationships with their candidates as it is very common for the same candidates to be placed by the same firm many times throughout their careers.

So there you have it. A five minute explanation of the world of recruiters for job seekers. They are not all the same and for good reason – they all work to different business models, ranging from the exploitative through the high volume number crunchers to the super-specialised and professional.

I hope that this post helps you know the right questions to ask next time the phone rings and the voice on the other end, says , ‘Hello, I’m a recruiter...’