How to avoid scam job wanted ads on Craigslist

Yes the scammers are out in force on Craigslist. They are particularly prevalent on the jobs section of the site. There are many legit companies that also advertise on there too (God only knows why since they should know better than to advertise on a website that is known for scams). So how can you tell the difference? Here are some tips:

• In the ad, it should state the company name and contact information. If it doesn't skip it.
• If there is a phone number in the ad, Google it and see what you come up with.
• If the ad has no contact information but you are still interested just take part of the ad and copy and paste it into your search on Google. If that same ad is showing up in other Craigslist ads all over the country then you know it is a scam.
• If the email address in the ad is a hotmail or gmail account they are usually scammers. I Googled on that had the email address of 128BeadsarusX7@gmail.com and nothing showed up, a sign of a scammer

I recently saw a job ad on Craigslist that was hiring automobile production workers ASAP. I thought it was strange since the area I live in does not have that type of industry. So I took part of the ad and put quotes ("") around the sentence and Googled it. The results showed 5 other ads on Craigslist that were all over the place. Yes, I flagged the ad so it would be removed.

If you think the ad just might be a real job, never send a cover letter or resume first. Send an email requesting more information and asking for their company name so you can find out more about them. Most companies want you to know more about them before you apply for a job with them anyway so a real company would not object.