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Hey, what's up, and welcome
back to another episode of The Straight Shooter

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Recruiter. I'm your host, Emily
Durham aka Emily the Recruiter on all social

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media platforms. If it's your first
time listening, I have been a recruiter

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for over seven years. I've been
featured in Forbes BBC. I'm a writer,

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I'm a career coach, I'm a
content creator. Really, my goal

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is just to help you thrive in
your nine to five and beyond and make

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you feel confident and like your best
self as you do it. So if

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that's your jam, please consider subscribing
and you know, interacting with the podcast,

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and if you're listening right now,
I would love to see you listen,

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So post on stories on Instagram,
tag me if you're listening, if

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you're on Twitter, use our hashtags. It was honestly just like the best

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thing in the world to watch you
guys interact with the show on Monday after

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I post every episode on Sunday,
So I really I would love to see

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it. But today gotta be real, we're talking about I don't love to

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see because ultimately it's taught me that
nothing is sacred. There was the tinder

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swindler, and now somehow we're in
the what like recruiter swindler era and recruiting

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scams They've always been a thing,
but they have been popping off over the

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last couple of years and most especially
over the last couple of months. So

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I want to deep dive on what
the heck these are because they're a little

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bit scandalous, you feel me,
So they're an interesting listen. But I

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also and honestly most importantly want to
talk to you about how you can avoid

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being a victim of one of them, because this is not the vibe.

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We are not trying to get scammed
this year, not not on LinkedIn.

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So if that's your jam, sit
back, relax, grab a coffee,

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because we're about to get into it. Okay, First, thanks, First,

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what is your recruitment scam? Because
I heard this it was like,

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what do you mean? There are
recruiting scams, And I first learned about

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them probably five or six years ago
when I first started my career. But

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there's a kind of more popular wave
of scams that are popping up now that

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to me are even more disturbing.
So I'll tell you the first and most

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basic kind of scams, because I'm
sure you've heard of these, but it's

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typically when someone who works at a
quote unquote recruiting agency winkin, mudge,

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nudge, they don't work anywhere.
They reach out to you on LinkedIn.

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They promise they're going to find you
like your dream job in a matter of

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thirty days or sixty days. But
in order to do that, they need

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to take a small deposit fee to
lock down your interest, or a small

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agency fee to make sure that you're
exclusively working with them. And they basically

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request that you pay them five hundred
dollars or a thousand dollars or fifty dollars,

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it could be any amount. Any
amount is too much, right,

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Why on earth would you pay a
recruiter to do their job? Why would

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that ever be? Why would that
ever be the situation? It's giving employee,

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right, it feels like this person
works for you. Now. This

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is not the same as hiring someone
who writes your resume and helps you find

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a gig like that is a very
legitimate business. This is more so people

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approaching you telling you, hey,
I work for an agency, let me

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find you a job, and it's
going to be this amount of money and

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it's super ambiguous and super vague that
I feel like is kind of easy to

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avoid because the second someone asks for
money or personal information, we're all kind

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of like, yeah, this is
obviously not real. So those have I

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think, not been as popular or
has impacted as many people. But this

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new kind, I guess it's yeah, it's like not new, but it's

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newly popular and it's really on the
rise. Is when people are pretending to

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work for reputable companies and they go
ham on the details. They have the

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same email address style as that given
company, They use all of their headers

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and footers and their emails, They
quote unquote work at this place on LinkedIn,

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like they have thought of every single
detail to make it look like they

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are a legitimate part of that organization, and it's so freaking diabolical. So

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basically, these people will reach out
to you via email or via LinkedIn and

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they'll say, Hey, I'm Emily, a recruiter at Google. I love

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your profile. Are you free for
an interview? You go, oh my

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god, Google wants me. I'm
on the way, say no more,

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and they go, great, we
have an interview right now, like a

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virtual interview. Today. We need
to talk to you, and you're like,

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oh my god, it's Google.
Obviously, I'm going to you hop

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on the zoom. They ask you
a couple of questions. It feels very

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legitimate. They put you through another
round of interviews with a different person,

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which this feels very legit. You
go, oh my god, I'm killing

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it. They say we need you
to start. We're going to send you

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an offer letter. They send you
an official offer letter with Google's header and

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footer, with the sign off of
the CEO, with all of these different

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things that you would legitimately need on
an offer letter. And guess what,

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baby, that's not an off a
letta. Yeah, that's nothing to tell.

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They are scamming you. They are
completely completely scamming you. And it

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is out of pocket, out of
body, the craziest freaking thing I've ever

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heard. Okay, first, in
my mind I was like, all of

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this for what What is the purpose
of people scamming you? And then I

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did some additional research and was like, ah, yes, this is why.

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So obviously there's number one reason,
which is money. So maybe they

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ask you for, you know,
a small deposit to purchase your laptop,

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or like a small fee to I
don't know do something to help you get

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set up for work from home.
But the other piece is your personal information.

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So when you sign a job offer, it is very standard for your

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social insurance number, you know,
birth certificate, like all of these different

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forms of ID typically need to be
sent in in order for you to accept

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a job offer. And for normal
companies, we do that because we're validating

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that you are who you say you
are. What's super not okay about this

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is now these undisclosed scam artists have
access to your social insurance number, your

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banking account information. They have access
to all of these different things that are

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really really scary. So if you
are in a position where you suspect this

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has happened, make sure you're contacting
your banks and give them the heads up

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to potentially change that information. But
ultimately, it's very money motivated, and

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some people just like to prey on
people who are vulnerable. I would say

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most fraud artists tend to tend to
believe in that. But what I think

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is so messed up about recruiting scams
is that they're literally preying on people who

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are vulnerable, Like these are people
who are looking for another job in a

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market that's really messed up, Like
we are living in a post pandemic world.

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A lot of people say we're about
to enter a recession, Like there's

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a lot going on here and it's
a really difficult time to land your job.

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It is like, right now is
a really hard time to find a

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job. I would say the hardest
I've seen in many, many years.

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So when these people are reaching out
and just taking advantage of folks trying to

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do better for themselves, for their
families, like, it just breaks my

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heart just so so messed up.
So anyways, that's what these scams are,

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and I just can't get over how
absolutely diabolical they are. But how

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can you avoid them? Like,
how can you catch them? Because a

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lot of these people who have fallen
victim to these scams are well educated people,

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like I saw a post from a
literal Facebook software engineer that has happened

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too, Like, these are people
who are on their ship, they know

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what they're doing, So how are
they falling victim? How can you avoid

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falling victim to this? Okay,
the first thing is kind of basic,

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but I swear this is the best
indication to tell if someone scamming you.

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It's spelling and grammar. I'm not
saying you need to download grammarly, but

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should this episode be sponsored? Yeah, baby, absolutely it should be.

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But for real, check out they're
spelling and grammar. Like if you're reading

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the sentence and you're like, something
is a whackadoodle with how you're typing this

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out, Like this isn't reading well, this isn't reading like a quote unquote

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executive recruiter. That can be a
tell. Not always, but I would

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say if you're starting to read the
message and it's just not adding up,

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um, yeah, good indicator to
pump the brakes. The next is request

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for personal information. And I know
when you sign an offer, you ultimately

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don't have a choice. However,
if they're asking you, like preemptively for

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the names of your previous employers,
if they're preemptively asking you questions where they're

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clearly trying to generate some database around
you, that is a red flag.

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Because for me as a recruiter,
and I've been a recruiter for many,

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many years, and I also service
clients who are looking for work, well,

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I just punched my mic. I
just got too passionate, But that's

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okay. I would never ask for
data because it's not necessary. There's nothing

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I need from you in the early
stages of the process. In fact,

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I personally am never going to ask
you for information. When it's time for

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you to sign the offer, I
send you the documentation, you submit it,

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that's it. I actually I have
no knowledge of your Social insurance number.

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I will never see details of your
background check. And that is for

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legal as well as like policy based
protection and most organizations, in most companies

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work like that. So if the
recruiter quote unquote is asking you these questions,

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something is funky. You also need
to be super wary of any time

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they are talking about like money.
If they're asking you for money, if

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they're implying that you might need to
invest in your work from home setup,

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that's not normal. Companies are not
going to make you pay to work for

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them by purchasing a laptop, and
if they are, they'll tell you in

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a way that's not sketchy and weird. So anytime they're kind of prying for

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that information, that's big. But
here's what I would say is the most

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important. It's the URLs and the
emails that they are using. So in

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my last example, let's say a
Google recruiter reached out to you and their

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email address is at Google dot com. What you need to do is go

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online and look at people who currently
work at Google, and there's a bunch

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of free websites that do this,
and see what their email structure is.

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Because maybe it's not Emily underscore Durham
at Google dot com. Maybe it's Emily

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dot Drham at Google dot com.
Maybe it's e Durham at Google dotca.

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There are a lot of different variants
of what professional emails look like, and

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it's possible they're just using a slightly
different version that still seems legit, So

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you need to validate that's accurate.
You also need to check links, so

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when you click a link. Actually, Like to Know is a really good

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example of this. Like to Know
is the company that I use. Basically,

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it's like an Amazon storefront, so
I put my skincare products that I

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use on there, like my work
from home setup, because I always get

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people asking and it's just easier to
have it all in one space. But

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I do make commission off of it. So if I use a certain I

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don't know nail polish and I post
it and you're like, oh love the

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nails. You click the link,
it'll say, hey, you're to this

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website. By the way, Emily's
going to make five percent commission off of

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the sale or whatever it is.
When you click those links, the first

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page that will load is my like
to know page, and then it redirects

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you to the website of the product
that you're purchasing. So unless you're actually

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watching the uurl's change throughout the chain
of events, you won't notice it because

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you're ultimately going to land on the
product page. You're not going to land

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on my like to know profile.
But if you're watching the links load,

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you'll see it'll go like to know
and then redirect. And what you need

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to do is you click links for
job descriptions or whatever else it is see

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where the redirects are. Because I
guarantee something sketchy is going to pop up,

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and unless you're proactively looking for it, it's so easy to miss.

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Like, why would anyone think they
need to do that? So I would

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probably recommend before you speak with any
of these recruiters to google them first.

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Like, for example, if I
reach out to you and you google me,

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you see I'm a real person.
I'm a real recruiter. Most recruiters

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that's the case, like they will
have a LinkedIn profile or other things that

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are super legit that will help you, so definitely do a quick search.

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The other thing I would say is
be mindful of the speed and urgency that

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they have. I know a lot
of companies, mine included, there are

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some positions where like we need to
hire you yesterday, like it's fast,

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we want you in the process.
But if they're applying, like a weird

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pressure and you'll know that pressure in
your gut where they're like, no,

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we need to talk today. We're
so excited about you. How can we

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talk today? That is scammer vibes, because a good recruiter wants to make

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the experience positive for you, and
sometimes that means waiting a day. So

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just be thoughtful about all of these
little things, because it is really easy

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to just think this person is enthused
and excited about your profile, when in

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reality the chan is still money for
your grandmother. There it is now.

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I was going to do Questions of
the Week, but I actually had a

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lot of questions on recruiting scams that
I intentionally answered in this episode. So

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I'm going to buy pass it just
because this episode is long. Af Like,

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it's so long. But what I'll
also request from y'all is if you

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have a topic you want me to
cover that I haven't covered yet, or

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a theme, or maybe you want
like a pep Talk episode, put that

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in the link that I put in
the description, because I want to make

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sure this episode and every episode I
release a is like entertaining. It's good

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vibes. You're listening to it while
you're cleaning your apartment or you're on a

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walk, but that we're actually taking
things away from it that's going to make

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the rest of our week better.
You know. That's kind of the energy

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we're putting out there. But in
any case, I am so happy you

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chose to hang out with me for
a little bit today, and I will

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talk to you next Sunday. Bestie,