Government Job Assistance Scams

Quite often on job sites and in classified advertising, there are ads stating they can get you U.S. Government jobs. For a fee these ads claim they can guarantee a position.

In most instances, people are directed to a toll free number, where someone tries to sell them study materials for a fee. These fraudulent services have also been known to lie about the availability of specific jobs in an area to reel in a customer (victim).

Many of these services will not give you any better chance of obtaining the job than if you applied for it yourself.

If you have been the victim of one of these scams call the Federal Trade Commission: 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357) or visit their website at www.ftc.gov and file a complaint. You can also complain to your state attorney general, or the Better Business Bureau.

Free information on government jobs can be found at www.usajobs.opm.gov. The bottom line is that information on civil service employment is in the public domain and no one should be charging for it.

Here is a link to an earlier post on identity theft occurring on job sites:

http://fraudwar.blogspot.com/2005/07/internet-resume-posting-and-fraud.html

To view the Federal Trade Commission's Alert on this activity, click here.