9. Your interview is with a Barrister from Nigeria, and you have to meet them in Switzerland.

>8. You found the job on Monster.com

Crap...I've had two scam jobs and never knew it.

The BBB article doesn't specifically indicate problem wtih monster.com.

Is monster and more dangerous or scam ridden that craigslist or any other job site?

8.1 Your paper payroll check is twice what you expect, to which you are required to send back 1/2 via a money order each week.

8.2 1 word ... Craigslist

X. You're recruited for a job in Iraq, charged several thousand dollars to be transported to the country, left stranded in the country with a few other hundred victims, and imprisoned by Iraqi police forces in an airport compound.

Seriously

Oh my god. #8 is the most truthful statement I have heard all day. I am so glad I gave those bastards my school email, otherwise my personal address would be overloaded with spam. Even though, I place equal blame on Career Builder for the spam, I never received any callbacks from any listing on Monster, and Monster was hacked last year I believe.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have found employment through Monster, but in my eyes, they're nothing but a bloated, useless "service".

@Hector Z: Number 8 is definitely ftw.

@SkokieGuy: I think Ben is just being an ***. I got my current job through Monster. It's just like any other site - you have to wade through the crap, but you can still find good jobs there.

monster.com is NOT a scam.

ugh.

I, as a qualified individual, have gotten a job or two from there with good success.

I HAVE found legit jobs on Craigslist. But you have to be an idiot NOT to see the scam ones. So #9 is a bit of an exaggeration...

@mtarget: I have to say I got my job off of craigslist and I am still working for the same company 3 1/2 years later.

Also - you have to pay to post a job on CL so that does eliminate some of the spam postings for jobs.

@JPropaganda: OMFG LOL BBQ. You GOT him.

Wait, no, you didn't respond to his assertion about Monster. You just threw "ftw" on there.

I had a great internship with a non-profit down in DC, and I found it through Monster. We did some great work, spoke in front of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and even started the whole "Net Neutrality" craze on the Internet.

But...like Hector Z, I'm guessing that was a scam, because "#8 [was] ftw".

"8. You found the job on Monster.com."

So, is that hyperbole or just libel?

10. You get an email offer for a job that you've never applied for or from the HR@notascamjob.com (or equivalent .com) extension.

@Hector Z: You need several points for a scam-job. Not just one.

@morganlh85: I agree.

the too good to be true rules still apply.

@mtarget: As a creative Pro I find half of my jobs on Craigslist

I found the best job (and pay) I've ever had through Monster.com. If you can't tell the difference between a legit employer and a fake one, you deserve to be scammed.

Another sign, the email is filled with overly gracioius statements i.e. "you are perfectly fit for our
open position" or "we were very excited to find your resume". Recruiters for legitimate jobs will never say these kinds of things. Most of these are for some type of "sales" or "distribution" jobs. I've been job hunting for over a month and I receive at least 1 or 2 of these a day. It's sick and smacks me right in the face with the reality that there are some really evil people out there.

I don't know why one should assume that Monster jobs are scams? And BTW, Monster runs a lot of the recruitment work for the federal government.

Craigslist? Meh...Frankly, I think in most cases you really have to be an idiot to fall for a job scam on CL.

@Hector Z: Same here. I found 3 of my major (more than a year stint) jobs on monster. Including Apple Computer and McGraw-Hill.

@chrisjames: Jeeze. Is anything in that country not terminally fucked?

@pozican:
I was shocked to get my current job on Monster.
Monster isn't a scam, you just see alot looser restrictions on spam and scam listings.

11. The recruiter has an AOL or Yahoo or similar free provider address.

Got one of the best year long jobs of my life off Craigslist. Craigslist can only scam you if you don't pay attention to the pervious 7 rules...

@dry-roasted-peanuts: i think that was an attempt at humor

Q. The words "Vector Marketing" appear anywhere on the page.

@YourTechSupport: imprisoned in an airport = "Terminally fucked?"

Yes, yes they were. You made a funny!

@YourTechSupport: The job I currently have I found on LinkedIn. The hiring manager (now my boss) had used her yahoo account on her LinkedIn profile so all the emails I got from her were from her yahoo account. This job was definitely legit and for a large global company. So I think the big thing is to not be an idiot, but these rules are not iron clad. There ARE exceptions.

@lannister80: Yep, I've had good luck with Monster as well; I found my current job there actually.

Not claiming there are no scammers, but they are far from universal on Monster. There are plenty of legit postings, and it's usually pretty easy to tell which is which.

@SkokieGuy: Tallanvor is correct. Sure, there are scams and shoddy postings on Monster, but there are plenty of legitimate postings as well. A little web research makes it pretty easy to determine which is which.

@blackmage439: I disagree. In fact, I find it hard to see how you can recognize that many people find jobs on Monster, and in the next breath call it "useless".

Sure, it is plenty bloated, but it has proven pretty useful to me.

@pozican: Agreed. Just because scammers can post on Monster doesn't make the entire site a scam. There are thousands of completely valid job listings.

@morganlh85: Exactly. It's no harder to post a scam in Monster or CL than it is anywhere else.

It's also no harder to spot the scams on those sites.

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@Ubik2501:

THIS

These guys wasted four hours of my time when I was looking for a job one summer.

They can DIAF.

/ended up clerking for the municipal court

@Hastin: I like this one!

Talking of scammy jobs, these guys send me a check every couple of weeks and all I have to do is copy top ten lists from other websites and post them on a different website :-)

@Hector Z: Same here, including my current one. Plus, apparently we are even more scammy because we have hired folks from both Monster and Craigslist (what about CareerBuilder?).

@Bertmanintx: I've been getting something similar in my spam box. The subject just says "I found you a job" or "your hired". I just delete them any way, but I think it's funny.

One of my primary tasks at work is to scour monster.com in search of possible candidates for various positions. We hire a great many people from monster.com. So please, don't believe it's like Craigslist.

I got a great job teaching with UCLA's Summer ESL Program via Craigslist. They paid on time and the checks always cleared.

I get an average of 2-3 emails a week and most reference careerbuilder. Since I have not looked for work in a couple of years, I can only assume that Careerbuilder got hacked sometime in the last year or so.

It's one thing to get email offering to give me a bigger ... but to read these emails knowing that it is from an honest to god criminal hoping to steal from you is something I never stop marveling at.

Just for the hell of it, I tracked one last week. The email claimed to be from a company in Europe, but the email came from a south korea IP address through a Singapore ISP. The email to reply to was a gmail account. I forwarded the whole thing to gmail who told me they close hundreds of these daily.

Nothing is worse than the debacle known as "Hotjobs/Yahoo Jobs"

All I saw there was reputable employers like Talent9 and Vector Marketing.

If you're looking for a pyramid scheme, however, then bonne chance!

I've found a job opportunity off Craigslist so it's definitely not a scam as a whole.

The biggest "scams" are possibly not scams at all, but are huge time wasters - they're the emails from companies with a "dynamic sales force" and think you are "upper management material" and it's in an area you have never held a job or done any kind of work in...I keep getting finance emails, and it's nothing like any of the jobs I've applied for.

And one time I even got an email and the guy was a tad too pushy for me to come in and interview for a job in their finance department. Nothing about my job experience or education said anything about finance...and this guy was insistent that I was fit for their company. No thanks...

@MissNikki:

Let me guess Monster.com internet grassroots PR manager.

3. They ask for your social security number and bank account number before you've even had a single interview

Actually I work for a legit staffing firm and one of our clients (natural gas) requires all candidates that are submitted into the system by vendors include their SS# as they are regulated by DHS. So that is not always a scam.

@monkeytown: The important point is that neither Monster or Craigslist are devoid of legitimate jobs. You just need to use your brain when looking at postings.