The Federal Trade Commission FTC issued an alert on Wednesday to consumers to be wary of job scams due to recent layoffs in tech and other industries.
According to the FTC consumer alert, the scammers may publish listings for nonexistent positions and create sham websites or onboarding portals, among the steps that may be taken by the latest wave of companies doing layoffs. The agency said fake online job interviews for job-hunters could be held by other scammers.
They could do such things in an attempt to get people's personal or banking information and to collect funds, according to the FTC.
The FTC recommends to stay away from scams to steer clear of scams.
Some things that could signal an employment scam include email from personal accounts that are not affiliated with a company, poor spelling and grammar, and salaries that are out of line with industry norms, according to the FTC.
Since the start of the new year, the tech industry has seen a number of companies announce layoffs.
Spotify plans to reduce its global headcount by 6%, according to the music-streaming service. The week prior to that, Microsoft and Google parent company Alphabet said they were cutting 10,000 and 12,000 workers.
Amazon has started its 18,000 layoffs, while software company Salesforce said on Jan. 4 it would shrink its employee count by 10%.
In late 2022, Facebook parent company Meta Platforms, Twitter and ride-share Lyft were among the companies that had layoffs.
Multinational conglomerates 3 M, financial services firm LendingClub Corporation and consumer products company Newell Brands are cutting percentages of their workforces.