Everyone wants to be service-minded, friendly and, not least, give a good impression to their colleagues and superiors in a new workplace.
At the same time, there are also some people in this world who will try to exploit others in any potentially vulnerable situation.
And yes, just around the time of changing employers, most of us will actually be in a particularly vulnerable situation.
Who follows you on LinkedIn?
In the happiness at finding your dream employer, you have probably – like most people – shared a status update on LinkedIn. This happens almost automatically:
Now, it is not at all dangerous to share work updates (or be a member) on LinkedIn. But nevertheless, this social network has proven to be a goldmine for scammers who enjoy adding a bit of a personal touch.
Several cases have now been reported of fraud attempts relating to people's recent onboarding with a new employer.
When information like this is made widely known on the Internet, it is perhaps not so surprising that scammers will try to exploit the situation.
Again, it's not that you shouldn't tell the world about your new job!
But you should be aware of how the mindset of a scammers works...
When managers send a message
Variants of this scam have been observed via both SMS, Whatsapp and other messaging services, in addition to email of course.
It may be the CEO, HR executive or your immediate manager's name that is misused. The message is often about whether you can do a small service such as buying a gift card, but it may also involve logging in to an alleged personnel system or similar.
If you ever receive such a message from "the boss" (maybe even including "Bruce Springsteen"), you should keep in mind that:
- you've just told the world, including potential scammers, that you've got a new employer;
- you don't know your new colleagues very well yet, for example, you don't know how they would phrase themselves in given situations;
- you don't know whether you can actually be expected to help them with a task like the one at hand;
- you may think the task seems innocent at first, but in the next step, it can suddenly become more comprehensive and risky;
- it will probably feel embarrassing to ask around for double checking whether the communication is legitimate.
Be confident, not embarrassed
If you spend the little effort of checking whether the message is genuine, possibly including an explanation of your skepticism, there is every reason to thank you for being vigilant!
The risk is not just theoretical, scam tricks like these are in fact used for real!
But you are now fully aware that fraud cases exist where this particular approach is used, and you obviously do not want to fall victim to the same yourself.
So now you have your plan ready, right?
Ask one time too much, rather than one time too little.
Then, it will just be a bonus that you get some extra good contact with your new boss, who will also thank you for contributing to secure the organization.