Recruitment Fraud Warning

There have been instances of various individuals and organizations offering false employment opportunities with ARES. Such scams are fraudulent and intended to steal money or identity from the victims. By making you aware of this, we hope to avoid and ultimately stop victims from falling for this scam.

Please do not provide any personal or financial information and do not send any money to anyone you suspect of recruitment fraud.

What is Recruitment Fraud?

Recruitment fraud is a sophisticated scheme that offers fictitious job opportunities to people. This type of fraud is normally done through online services such as fake websites, or through unsolicited emails claiming to be from ARES. These emails request recipients to provide personal information, sign fake letters of employment, organize visas and ultimately request payments to submit false applications.

How to Identify Recruitment Fraud:

  • You didn’t contact them; they contacted you and they say they found your resume online. They either offer you a job right away or say they want to interview you. Sometimes the scammers will try to entice you by saying that you made the cut and they are interviewing the finalists for the job.
  • The email does not come from an official “arescorporation.com” email address and instead uses an address from a free email service such as: Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo, AOL or a combination of these. It is likely a scam if the interviewer makes an excuse for using a personal email address by saying the company’s servers are down, or the company is experiencing too many problems with spam, or the company hasn’t yet set up its email system.
  • They present you with vague Job Requirements and Job Description.
  • Some emails from scammers are well-written, but many aren’t. If the email contains spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or grammatical mistakes, be on your guard.
  • Many attempted scams say the interview will take place online using an instant messaging service. ARES does NOT conduct interviews using instance messaging, phone apps or Google Hangouts. The scammers often include instructions for setting up and contacting the hiring manager and may ask for confidential information.
  • You get the job right away. After a quick phone or Instant Message interview, the ‘interviewer’ immediately contacts you to offer you the job.
  • You are offered a check to process before being interviewed. The perpetrators will often ask recipients to complete fake recruitment documentation, such as application forms, terms and conditions of employment or visa forms. A corporate name and logo are sometimes featured on the documentation without authority.
  • There is an early request for personal information such as address details, date of birth, resume (CV), passport details, etc.
  • Some scammers ask for your bank account information to set up direct deposit or transfer money to your account, or ask you to open a new bank account and provide the information to them. Other scammers will tell you to go to a website and fill out a credit report form or provide confidential information so they can “put you on the company insurance.” Identity theft scams try to get you to provide your Social Security number and birth date and other personal information.
  • Candidates are requested to contact other companies/individuals such as lawyers, bank officials, travel agencies, courier companies, visa/immigration processing agencies, etc.
  • The perpetrators may even offer to pay a large percentage of the fees requested and ask the candidate to pay the remaining amount.
  • Some victims say they’ve received checks that look like real cashier’s checks. They are instructed to deposit the check, keep some of the money for themselves, and send the rest of the money to someone else via Western Union or Money Gram. Then, a few days or weeks later, they get a call from the bank saying the check is fake. They have lost the money they sent.
  • Legitimate companies don’t ask for money. If you’re told you need to purchase software or pay for services, beware.
  • There is an insistence on urgency.

ARES never requires candidates to pay any sum of money in advance. To do so would be contrary to our business conduct guidelines and ethical practices.

What Should I Do?

  • Please report all perceived scams to your local authorities.
  • Please contact the FBI at this link to report the internet scam: http://www.ic3.gov/

Please Do Not:

  • Respond to unsolicited business propositions and/or offers of employment from unfamiliar people.
  • Disclose your personal or financial details to anyone you do not know.
  • Send any money. ARES does not ask for money transfers or payments from applicants to secure a job as an employee or as a contractor.
  • Engage in further communication if you believe the communication may be fraudulent.