Contrary to popular belief, Internet job boards are still a great source of employmet leads for people in need of work.  But with unemployment at record levels and more people surfing sites like CareerBuilder.com and Indeed.com, the fraudsters have a target rich environment of potential suckers.

Knowing what kinds of scams are popular today is a good first step in avoiding becoming a victim. I received an email today from Monster.com that had great information on what to look out for.

The first type of scam to look out for are money laundering scams. Money launderers often create job descriptions that offer commissions or pay as high as $2000 per day to process checks on behalf of foreign nationals. They are recruiting local citizens to “process payments” or “transfer funds,” because as foreign nationals, they can’t do it themselves.

Also popular are reshipping, or postal forwarding, scams. These  typically require job seekers to receive stolen goods in their own homes– frequently consumer electronics — and then forward the packages, often outside the United States. Those who fall for reshipping scams may be liable for shipping charges and even the cost of goods purchased online with stolen credit cards.

Finally, you may run across pre-pay or work at home scams. Although there are genuine jobs working at home, many “offers” are not valid forms of employment and may have the simple goal of obtaining an initial monetary investment from the victim. Using claims such as ‘be your own boss’ and ‘make money quickly’, Work at Home scams will not guarantee regular salaried employment and almost always require an “up-front” investment of money for products or instructions before explaining how the plan works.

To protect yourself from online employment scams, never share any personal information with a prospective employer, even if they suggest that it is for a “routine background check”, until you are confident that the employer and employment opportunity is legitimate. Never put your Social Security number, credit card number, bank account number or any type of sensitive personal identification data in your resume. And as always, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.