Job-seekers are targets of phishing scams

The online news site USA Voice isn’t going to win any kudos from media critics. Not for its top story Monday, “Super Bowl Ads Don’t Live Up to the Hype.” And not for its Fox News-style slogan, “USA Voice: Honest and Unfiltered.”

As a phishing scheme, however, privacy experts say it’s a winner.

The Web site for the “world’s fastest growing news organization” looked good enough to fool Katherine Brinton, an aspiring journalist in Philadelphia. After posting her resume on Monster.com nine months ago, the 23-year old received an e-mail from USA Voice in November that said it was looking for reporters with “excellent writing skills” and an “innate ability to find the truth.”

Brinton filled out an online application with her name, address and telephone number. But instead of job offers, she began receiving a stream of unsolicited e-mails hawking Viagra, payday loans and penny stocks.

“I felt like I was being scammed,” she said.

Brinton fell victim to a sophisticated phishing scam, which, in recent months, targeted thousands of job seekers on such popular Web sites as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Phishers send out seemingly legitimate e-mail to get people to reply with personal information then used in a variety of scams.

The majority of phishing e-mails claim to be from financial institutions, but phishers have also switched to mimicking dating, social networking and other kinds of online services. In those cases, victims might let their guard down because they are not giving out financial information, Wilbur said. But such attacks can leave them just as vulnerable to identity theft.