Recruitment Identity Fraud

We've been alerted by a candidate to a recent spate of identity theft arising from fake recruiters asking candidates for scanned or photocopied versions of their passports (See the full article here). The idea is that a "recruiter" calls a jobseeker, takes them through details of a job overseas and claims to be able to fly them out for an interview. The candidates agrees to fax or e-mail a copy of thier passport over to arrange the flight, whereupon the recruiter vanishes, never to be seen or heard from again.

The fraudster can then use the copy of the passport for their own gain - and passports can be pretty valuable, particularly as it is possible to get a full passport from an Embassy in certain countries using a photocopy.

Now, this could be a bit of an issue to be honest. Recruiters are bound by the Agency Regulations, so can't legally represent candidates to a company without first confirming their identity (for simplified version of the regulations, take a look at this.)

So that panic levels don't rise too much, we'd remind candidates that recruiters are legally obliged to confirm your identity before they can represent you. The advice from us would be clear: if you're asked, check out the credentials of the person asking for it on-line before supplying details: ensure that the company and the individual contacting you with this interview offer actually exists. If you can't find any record of an individual recruiter on-line (a quick search on Google normally brings up scores of job adverts and name references), then exercise caution. However, a blanket refusal to supply information could affect your chances of getting a new position