It seems as though the only way to get a job these days is to apply online.  Very few companies will take a written resume or schedule an interview until you have applied online through a job board or their website.  It is much easier to vet candidates without ever talking to them — not! It is, in fact, a way to miss out on the best candidates because the format may not allow the company to learn about qualities that were not programmatically allowed in the application form.  However, there is another huge problem with online job searches. Fake jobs! It is often hard to distinguish them when they appear alongside real job placement firms and legitimate employers.

Cybercriminals and others wishing to defraud people are targeting them with job offers that may appear to be legitimate but are in reality, fake. These type of job offers usually appear on spoofed sites that are used to harvest your personally identifiable information.

Think about all the information contained in a job application — what could a scammer do with it?  Some of these cybercriminals are so brazen as to even conduct interviews through which they can gain even more personal data. The scheme is usually revealed when the applicant is asked to pay a fee or purchase hardware or software to work remotely. 

The FBI is warning applicants to never pay a fee when applying online for a job or purchase equipment to getting a job.