Recently we’ve seen a significant rise in jobs scams, often featuring fraudsters impersonating recruitment companies or consultants.
At PageGroup, we’re doing everything we can to spread awareness of the tactics used by fraudsters to help protect individuals and organisations from scammers using our company or consultant’s name.
Warning signs to look out for
We’ve compiled a list of the warnings signs to look out for that could indicate you’ve been contacted by a scammer posing as a recruitment consultant or company:
PageGroup “consultant” or brand requesting:
- Personal financial details.
- You pay a fee to be put forward as a candidate for a role.
- Money on behalf of another individual.
Social media (i.e., LinkedIn / WhatsApp / Telegram) from a purported recruitment consultant with:
- A lack of activity, information, or contact details on their profile.
- A suspicious or no profile picture.
Incorrect email addresses:
Scammers may contact you from an email address that attempts to replicate a PageGroup email address. We advise you to carefully check for discrepancies. Official PageGroup / Michael Page / Page Executive / Page Personnel / Page Outsourcing email addresses are:
@mail.michaelpage.com
@mail.pagepersonnel.com
@mail.pageexecutive.com
@mail.pageoutsourcing.com
@michaelpage.co.uk
@e.michaelpage.co.uk
@e.pageexecutive.com
@mail.michaelpage.ca
@email.page.com
@mail.michaelpageafrica.com
@mail.michaelpage.ae
@e.michaelpage.ae
@e.michaelpageafrica.com
@e.michaelpage.co.za
@mail.michaelpage.co.za
How to spot a scammer webpage
There’s also been a rise in cases of fraudsters cloning the sites of legitimate recruitment consultancies in an attempt to steal money and/or the personal details of job seekers and hiring managers.
Here are the key things to look out for:
- SSL Certification – A digital certificate that authenticates a website identity and enables an encrypted connection, depicted by a padlock icon to the left of a URL. To check the legitimacy of a site, we encourage you to verify the SSL by clicking this padlock. If a site doesn’t have one, this could be a sign of a scam website.
- Missing information – If a site posing as PageGroup or one of our brands doesn’t have an “About Us” section or contact information this could be a sign of a scam.
- URL – Check the website URL conforms to traditional formats. Look for spelling errors and unusual domain extensions. You can also copy and paste the URL into Google, which will show you the company’s legitimate website.
PageGroup official websites are:
More information
For more information on recruitment scams, and how to spot them, check out the dedicated page by Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre.
Please get in touch with us to report a potential scam using any of our brand names (PageGroup; Page; Michael Page; Page Personnel; Page Executive; Page Outsourcing).
