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  Geebo 8:00 am on March 18, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 108 ), employment, job scam ( 79 ), job search ( 9 ), Scams ( 1,354 ), Spokane ( 3 ), Washington ( 11 )   

  Amazon job scam is permeating NW Washington State 

  

  Previously, we’ve mentioned how Amazon is hiring for new work at home positions and how job scams topped the BBB’s list of worst scams in 2018. Now, those two stories seem to have converged into one. One of the states where Amazon is looking to hire new employees is Washington. They are also looking to open a new fulfillment center in Spokane that promises an additional 1500 positions. Due to those factors. among others, scammers have decided to use Amazon’s hiring initiative in the are to embark on a massive fleecing of Amazon hopefuls.

  The scam appears to be overly elaborate but effective at the same time. It starts out with a robocall going out to local residents offering positions with Amazon that supposedly pay $27 an hour. The robocall directs victims to go to a website that has the Amazon name in the site’s address but isn’t an official Amazon website. Once there, victims are instructed to enter personal and financial information while the phony website makes it look like the victim is applying for a job at Amazon. More than likely, any unsuspecting victim of this scam will have their identity and possibly their finances stolen.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w34SBAgKjS8%5D

  Another aspect of the scam has the scammers trying to get their victims to pay the scammers money for phony employment fees such as processing fees or background check fees. The scammers will try to get this money through either requesting the money be wired to them or paid through gift cards, two of the most prevalent calling cards of a scammer. Amazon themselves have commented on this scam stating that they will never ask a prospective employee for financial information or request any kind of employment fee. These tips not only apply to Amazon but also to most major employers. If these tips are kept in mind hopefully your potential job search will be a relatively stress-free one.

   

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  Geebo 9:08 am on March 11, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BBB ( 19 ), employment, job scam ( 79 ), Scams ( 1,354 )   

  BBB: Job scams were the worst in 2018 

  

  The Better Business Bureau is reporting that in 2018 job and employment scams topped their list of riskiest scams. More people lost money to job scams than any other scam the BBB tracks last year. The job scams even beat out standard scams like the fake check scam, phony online purchases, and tech support scams. In most employment scams the scammers will try to get you to pay some kind of advance processing fee for things like background checks while most legitimate employers will burden this cost themselves. Any prospective job that asks you for money is almost definitely a scam and should be avoided at all costs. Not only could you lose money but your identity could be stolen as well.

  So why were employment scams so prolific in 2018? The BBB attributes most of the job scams to Amazon’s search for their second headquarters last year. Not that Amazon is to blame but scammers took advantage of Amazon being in the news so much by offering fictitious Amazon jobs to unsuspecting victims often using websites and social media posts that mimic Amazon in a very convincing way. Amazon has only one official job application portal that can be found at amazon.jobs.

  The BBB also issued warnings against the other typical job scams to be on the lookout for. We’ve already mentioned any job that asks for money in advance. There’s also the work at home jobs that you have to be wary of since many of them are scams. You should also be wary of any job that offers you an immediate position without arranging an interview first. No legitimate employer would hire someone sight unseen. Lastly, you should be on the lookout for anyone trying to charge you to get you a government job as all government jobs are posted publicly by the government themselves. In today’s job market where so many people are desperate to find ways of supporting their family, this desperation can lead to not thinking clearly when it comes to finding a job.

   
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  Geebo 10:16 am on December 5, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment, Facebook ( 178 ), scam ( 22 ), veterans ( 8 )   

  Facebook slips as the top place to work as a Facebook scam targets veterans 

  

  In a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Facebook employees looking to leave the company, Glassdoor released their 2019 rankings of the best places to work. Facebook has fallen hard from its number one perch sliding all the way down to number seven. While it’s still in the top ten of the best places to work in the country, its decline on Glassdoor’s list shows that worker’s attitudes toward the company have definitely shifted in a less than positive way. Facebook was supplanted at the top of the list by consulting firm Bain and Company.

  In other news, a scam has arisen on Facebook that is indicative of its ongoing fight with foreign agitators. WIRED is reporting that foreign entities are posing as various US veterans groups in order to provoke outrage among veterans. As has been Facebook’s usual response to matters like this, Facebook has only been shutting down these scam pages when they’ve been notified by a legitimate veterans organization although the process took months. The scam pages seem to be largely targeting veterans who served during the Vietnam War. The scammers seem to be targeting Vietnam vets due to their age and are hoping that the vets are not savvy internet users. Unfortunately, a number of these scam pages continued to stand because Facebook said that the page did not violate their ever-vague community standards.

  What can be said about this latest Facebook faux pas that hasn’t been said about the others? Again, this latest scam shows that Facebook seems to thrive on controversy and outrage in order to keep their users engaged on the platform by any means necessary. In this day and age where the average Facebook users use the platform to obtain their news, they can almost hardly be blamed for buying into the misinformation since they’re inundated by it on an almost constant basis. If Facebook isn’t willing to help those who have served our country then who are they out to help besides themselves?

   
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  Geebo 10:14 am on December 4, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment, Facebook ( 178 ), hate speech ( 14 ), Immigration ( 12 )   

  Are Facebook employees looking to jump ship? Also, hate speech is still a problem for the platform. 

  

  For several years, Facebook was considered the place to work in Silicon Valley. Many considered it to be the holy grail of employment with Facebook even being ranked the best place to work in America by employer review site Glassdoor.com. Facebook even touted this fact themselves in a corporate video where they almost break their arm patting themselves on the back.

  However, the ranking and the video all took place before Facebook started to be embroiled in the myriad of scandals that have shaken the foundations at the Menlo Park headquarters. According to CNBC, a number of current Facebook employees have been reaching out to former colleagues supposedly looking for new employment opportunities. That’s not unusual for many companies but former Facebook employees have said they’ve seen a sharp increase recently in current Facebook employees looking to leave the company. One of the problems facing current Facebook employees is that Facebook holds a lot of sway in Silicon Valley and can basically determine your future employment opportunities. Again, according to CNBC, if you leave Facebook in the ‘wrong’ way, you can be labeled as “non-regrettable”. Not only does this status mean you could never work for Facebook again, but it could also keep you out of many other positions in the tech industry.

  To make matters worse for Facebook, The Daily Beast has published a report where they documented a deluge of posts that could be considered hate speech by most rational people, yet Facebook failed to do anything about these posts until The Daily Beast pointed them out to Facebook. The majority of these posts were calling for violence against immigrants. Even though The Daily Beast reported many of these posts to Facebook, the social network failed to remove all of them saying that some of the calls for violence didn’t violate their nebulous community standards. Again, this lends credence to the theory that Facebook wants to keep as many users engaged as possible even if it’s through inflammatory content. Facebook’s so-called commitment to stopping hate speech seems little more than lip service to anyone who actually tried to do something about it. Any private company, and by private we mean that it’s not a government-run institution, that not only allows but encourages their platform to be used for hate cannot have its users best interest at heart.

  Facebook slips as the top place to work as a Facebook scam targets veterans | Greg's Corner is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Geebo 9:33 am on September 20, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ACLU, discrimination ( 5 ), employment, Facebook ( 178 )   

  Facebook accused of discriminating against women in job ads 

  

  Facebook doesn’t seem to be able to stop making headlines for all the wrong reasons. If it’s not for massive data breaches or election meddling, it’s for doing little to nothing to prevent hate crimes and ethnic cleansing. Now Facebook is back in the news once again for allegedly allowing employers to target only men in ads for employment. This practice has been outlawed in the United States since the early 1960s.

  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that Facebook allowed the option of gender exclusion in their ad platform. For example, when an employer places an ad with Facebook there is an option that allows you to target only male Facebook users. Several employers are also accused in the complaint of actively using this feature.

  With all its faults, I don’t think Facebook purposely looked to violate civil rights laws by actively trying to exclude women from ads for jobs in male-dominated fields. However, this is a gross oversight that Facebook should have been well aware of before this became a legal matter. This is yet another example of how Facebook has lost control of its own power and scope. When the ad platform was designed, someone should have had enough sense to realize that while targeting merchandise ads to specific genders is fine while allowing employers to use the same gender-specific targeting was just asking for more bad PR nightmares than Facebook already has.

   
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  Geebo 9:27 am on June 19, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: craigslist ( 129 ), employment, geebo ( 22 )   

  Geebo is better for job hunting than craigslist 

  

  When it comes to looking for a new job, a lot of job seekers will turn to craigslist ads for new opportunities. The problem with that is that anybody can pay for a craigslist ad and claim to be an employer. This often results in deceptive ads that either misrepresent what the job really is, or they’re outright scams. Here are some tips on how to tell if a job is not legitimate.

  News station WKBW out of Buffalo, New York, recently did an expose on craigslist job ads. In one instance they found a meal delivery service that promised $19/hr. but after they clicked on the ad they noticed that the pay started lowering as the ad progressed. The reporter reached out to craigslist to see how they verify their job ads but craigslist, not surprisingly, did not respond.

  Here at Geebo, not only do we review our ads for legitimacy, but all our employment ads list the name of the company placing the ad. This allows you the opportunity to research the company to see if it’s the right fit for you.

   
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  Geebo 10:32 am on December 21, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: age discrimination, employment, Facebook ( 178 ), Online ads ( 3 )   

  Is Facebook serving job ads that discriminate by age? 

  

  It appears that Facebook is once again in hot water for the way it serves its ads. If you’ve been following the Facebook ad saga, first there was the fact that the social media giant accepted foreign currency for ads allegedly trying to influence the 2016 US Presidential election. Then there were allegations that Facebook was serving housing ads that discriminated by race. Now, through a joint investigation by the New York Times and Pro Publica, Facebook is allegedly serving employment ads that are discriminating by age.

  Communications giant Verizon is the one being singled out the most by supposedly targeting their employment ads to people in the 25 to 36 age range. However, reports say that companies such as Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook itself have used such tactics when it comes to hiring ages. There may be legal investigations forthcoming as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 prohibits discriminating against people who are over 40 when it comes to employment.

  Facebook says that it’s not their fault. They say this practice is protected by the Communications Decency Act of 1997. This is the same act that Backpage hides behind to continue making money off of obvious ads for prostitution and human trafficking. Facebook’s problem with this argument is that they’re the ones who are offering this specific age targeting options for ads. The sad truth is that Facebook will continue to flaunt their unchecked power until a rival platform comes along that users would be willing to jump to and that probably won’t happen any time soon.

   
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  Geebo 8:55 am on October 6, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment, montana ( 2 ), repackaging ( 22 ), Scams ( 1,354 ), work at home ( 14 )   

  Beware of new work at home repackaging scam 

  

  Many work at home job offers that you might find online are scams. In most of those cases, the scam is designed to either get you to pay money up front for ‘materials’ or some kind of background check. Again, you should never have to pay to apply for a legitimate job. However, a new twist on the work at home scam has been reported out of Montana and many of the state’s residents have fallen victim to it.

  In this new scam, the supposed job is that of a ‘repackager’. The ‘company’ sends products to your home then asks you to repackage them and mail the products to their destination address. The problem is that these products have been bought with stolen credit card information. Instead of having the items sent to the thieves themselves, they instead have them sent to an unwitting person who thinks they’re just doing the job asked of them. The victim then unknowingly repackages the products and sends them to the destination intended by the thieves. The victim has then transferred stolen goods and of course, the victim never gets paid.

  This isn’t just a stolen goods scam either. When a victim applies for this kind of job they’re asked to submit their social security number, address and a copy of their driver’s license. That in turn leads to identities being stolen scamming the victim twice in one go. If you believe you have been the victim of this scam it is recommended that you contact your local police.

  ‘Work at home’ could put you in jail! | Greg's Corner is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Geebo 8:57 am on August 21, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: eclipse 2017 ( 2 ), employment, productivity   

  How much will the eclipse cost the country? 

  

  With today’s solar eclipse literally looming over the horizon, a vast number of Americans are taking time out of their busy schedules in order to view the once in a lifetime event. Today’s eclipse will be the first one since 1919 to traverse the entire country from coast to coast. The next one reaching that many Americans won’t be seen until 2045. So it should come as no surprise today will more than likely act like an unofficial holiday.

  So with all the time being taken off for the eclipse, how will this affect the American workforce? According to a Chicago based outplacement firm, the time lost by employees will cost their employers close to $700 million nationwide in lost production. While that sounds like a lot, it pales in comparison to other events around the calendar.

  During March Madness it’s estimated $615 million per hour is lost in productivity, while the day after the Super Bowl is said to lose $290 million every 10 minutes. Then there’s Cyber-Monday where $450 million in productivity is lost every 14 minutes. What makes these events worse is they happen every year. So a once in a lifetime event where most employees are taking an extended lunch to view doesn’t seem so bad.

   
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  Geebo 8:55 am on June 14, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment, McDonald's, Snapchat ( 13 ), Snaplications   

  McDonald’s using Snapchat to recruit new hires 

  

  If you need to hire a large number of new employees, you need to go where your potential hires are. For McDonald’s, that would be social media and not just any social media, but Snapchat specifically. The fast-food pioneer is using the photo sharing app to appeal to the 16-24 demographic in order to hire 250,000 people for the summer.

  If you use Snapchat, you may see a short ad for McDonald’s about open positions. In a process McDonald’s is calling ‘Snaplications’, if you’re interested in the position you can swipe up on the ad where you’ll be taken to the company’s career webpage where you can complete your application.

  It will be interesting to see if this recruitment drive is successful for the Golden Arches. While their appeal to a younger demographic through Snapchat seems ingenious, there is still somewhat of a stigma when it comes to working at McDonald’s. The term ‘McJob’ comes from that stigma after all. Many young users tend to portray themselves on Snapchat as being more financially well off than they actually are. They may see working at McDonald’s beneath them even if it is one of their better financial options.