Job Recruitment Scams
Fraudsters can create job listings online or send inviting messages on well known apps and platforms like WhatsApp and on social media with convincing job offers. We’ve noticed this can happen for jobs and opportunities like “mystery shopper schemes” or “product rating platforms.” Their goal is to recruit individuals in a scheme that will convince them to deposit their own money.
If any of these types of accounts ask for a deposit or cryptocurrency transfer to work on tasks, to rate products, or to buy gift cards and then reveal the gift card codes, this is a scam.
GfK would NEVER ask you to use any of these methods when participating in a panel survey.
How to spot a scam
Scammers often create fake websites or email domains that imitate real companies to appear legitimate. GfK will always use our gfk.com domain.
Look out for:
- Fake domains. GfK Services are registered under our www.gfk[.]com domain.
- Scammers may register domain names that are common misspellings of legitimate websites, in the hope that victims wouldn’t recognise the difference, such as “gooogle[.]com” or “facebock[.]com”.
- Scammers may register domain names that combine a familiar brand’s name with another word, such as “facebook-security[.]com” or “amazon-shop[.]com”.
- This can include email domains as well. Always double check the real email that is being used and compare it to the legitimate brand. For example, GfK only uses “@gfk.com”.
Real domain:
Fake domain:
- Newly registered domains. Legitimate websites will usually have domains which have been registered a long time ago. For example, the legitimate domain for GfK, “www.gfk[.]com” was registered in 1998.
- A fake domain could be only a few weeks old. You can check this here: WhoIsLookup
- Frequently changing domains. Fraudsters may use various excuses to justify their websites constantly changing name, this is often done to avoid detection as they are using them for illicit activity.
- Lack of information on the website. Fraudsters would want to hide their identities and avoid putting too much information which can then be researched. A legitimate company website would normally feature detailed and specific information, such as an “About Us” page and contact details.
- Poor language, such as spelling or grammatical mistakes. Watch out for phrases that don’t sound quite right. This could indicate that the site was put together by someone not familiar with the language of the legitimate site in question looking to make a quick profit.
Scammers may pretend to be a recruiter from a legitimate company and can contact you directly or set up a fake job listing hoping you will contact them first.
Look out for:
- An offer which sounds too good to be true -most often that’s extremely high pay for little hours or effort.
- Communication which is kept on SMS or messaging apps.
- Communication which has grammatical mistakes or appears unprofessional.
- Feeling pressured into making a decision or providing information.
- Being asked to use a different payment method that you do not already use with that brand or are not comfortable with using.
GfK would NEVER make unrealistic offers or pressure its customers into making decisions or using specific unusual payment methods.