Fraudsters pose as employers to steal job-seekers' personal details

US recruitment website Monster.com has warned internet job-seekers to beware of identity thieves who steal the personal details of would-be applicants. The company sent an email to its registered users last week warning them about the danger of fraudsters posting bogus jobs on recruitment sites. Steve Pogorzelski, president of Massachusetts-based Monster.com, told Reuters that the thieves typically pose as genuine employers, either using real or fictitious company names. He added that the incidences of the scam are "very rare" at this stage. Under the guise of establishing the identity of applicants, the fraudsters ask for sensitive personal information such as social security numbers and credit card details for bank account references. These are then used to clone the identities of their victims. The company warned job seekers to be wary of postings from companies outside the US because of a high number of fake listings from eastern Europe.