美招聘网站涉嫌欺诈

　　尽管诸如Monster.com，CareerBuilder以及HotJobs等招聘网站为雇主网罗英才提供了新的渠道，但是这些网站同样招来了罪犯的光顾。 　　比如，在最近一起诈骗案中，信用卡窃贼无意中发现了犯罪组织利用Monster.com洗黑钱，真相曝光时已经有许多受金钱引诱的“雇员”负债累累，甚至可能涉嫌犯罪。这一事件导致的后果令受害者对这些网站气愤不已。尽管上述网站已经加强了筛选措施，但仍表示网站上的确存在被罪犯利用的漏洞。

　　今年25岁、从事市场咨询的蒂娜-哈罗勒斯（Tina Haloulos）叙述了其受骗过程。当时她在Monster.com招聘网站上看到一条招聘广告，为一家欧洲的软件公司处理付款业务。哈罗勒斯访问了该公司的站点，并且同该公司的一位男子进行了邮件沟通。根据约定，她将接收该软件公司国内客户的付款，并且从她在PayPal的帐户中提取现金，通过西联汇款电汇返至该公司。哈罗勒斯从中获得5%到20%的佣金。但是一个月后，哈罗勒斯便收到PayPal的通知，被告知她的帐户因为涉嫌欺诈而遭冻结。

　　事情发生后，Monster强烈否认其对欺诈行为筛选松懈的指控。Monster发言人表示：“公司有专门的团队，致力于筛选和监测招聘广告，以维护合法性。如果对招聘启事有任何疑虑，其一定会从网站上撤下该信息。”

　　与此同时，另外两家知名的招聘网站HotJobs和CareerBuilder.com也表示调派了专人和启用了专门的技术来筛选虚假信息。而事实上，罪犯欺诈手段不断番新，要想有效识别确实很困难。

　　Online job sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and HotJobs have given employers another way to find workers, but it turns out that crime rings are making use of the sites, too.

　　In a recent swindle, for instance, credit card thieves found unwitting money launderers through Monster.com, then left their "employees" on the hook for thousands of dollars in debts and possible criminal liability when the fraud was discovered.

　　The aftermath has left the victims angry at the job sites, which have been forced to defend their screening procedures, while also acknowledging their vulnerability to criminals.

　　"I feel like an idiot," said Tina Haloulos, a 25-year-old marketing consultant in Marlton, N.J., who was caught up in a swindle in February, after she quit her full-time job to study for law school entrance exams. Looking for part-time work, Ms. Haloulos found a listing on Monster.com, which is owned by Monster Worldwide Inc., for a telecommuting job processing payments for a European software company.

　　After Ms. Haloulos looked at the company Web site and interviewed via e-mail with a man associated with the company, the two agreed to terms. Ms. Haloulos would accept payment for the software company's domestic sales, then take that cash out of her PayPal account and wire it, via Western Union, to the software company's contacts in Ukraine. Ms. Haloulos would keep 5 percent to 20 percent of the payment as commission.

　　After about a month transferring payments, Ms. Haloulos received a call from PayPal, which is a unit of eBay Inc., informing her that her account had been frozen for fraudulent activity. PayPal told her she had been receiving funds from stolen credit cards, and as a result she owed the company about $2,000 it had transferred to her from those credit cards. (Credit card companies and their customers do not reimburse PayPal for fraudulent purchases.)

　　Analysts said Monster, as well as other job sites that have posted fraudulent listings, could be significantly compromised by even a small number of frauds. "They should be paranoid about this, for the potential loss of trust," said Juliana Deeks, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "These companies are relatively new brands, and while they're strong brands, they're absolutely vulnerable when it comes to things like this."

　　That vulnerability, Ms. Deeks said, comes at a point when online employment sites are trying to broaden the range of services they offer employers who surf the sites' resume databases. Such services, like custom database searches, are dwarfed by the $741 million employers are expected to spend on job postings this year alone, but they are an important new area of growth. "And all of these revenue streams are based on maintaining the trust of consumers who post the resumes," Ms. Deeks said.

　　Monster vigorously denies accusations that it is lax in screening for fraud. "We have a team of employees dedicated to screening and monitoring the postings to ensure their legitimacy," said Kevin Mullins, a company spokesman. "If there's any concern whatsoever about a posting, we take it off the site."

　　The company does not disclose how many listings it has on its site at a given time, but Mr. Mullins said it listed about 1 million jobs each quarter, with prospective employers paying $335 to display each listing for 60 days.

　　Mr. Mullins declined to say how many people make up the company's fraud-detection team, but he said the team searched the site daily for phrases that might suggest fraud. Once the site identifies a fraudulent post, it notes the credit card used to secure that post and bars that credit card holder from making another posting.

　　The other two leading job-posting sites, HotJobs, which is owned by Yahoo Inc., and CareerBuilder.com, also use a combination of people and technology to detect fraudulent listings. Daniel J. Finnigan, HotJobs's executive vice president and general manager, said that a few months ago his company "created a full-time position whose sole job it is to check for this kind of stuff."

　　Indeed, it can be difficult to identify new kinds of fraud as criminals become ever more creative. Federal authorities said the PayPal swindle, for example, was one they had not yet seen.

　　"It's a new one to me," said Molly S. McMinn, an inspector for the United States Postal Inspection Service. Ms. McMinn said this type of fraud was "a new twist on an old idea" of credit card thieves from foreign countries buying merchandise from online merchants with card numbers stolen from American citizens and having the merchandise shipped to associates in the United States.

　　Ms. McMinn said fraud rings would recruit associates by putting ads on job sites for "reshippers," who, in exchange for a fee, mail the merchandise to Ukraine, Indonesia or other countries known by online merchants as hotbeds of Internet fraud.

　　By using middlemen based in the United States, criminals can escape detection by merchants. Just as Ms. Haloulos was held responsible for accepting payment from stolen cards, online merchants also suffer economic consequences for not rooting out fraudulent purchases, since they ship out goods but are not reimbursed by the credit card companies or the true cardholders.

　　Ms. Haloulos, as well as other victims of the swindle that victimized her, said they did not consider the possibility that the job postings on the major employment sites might be fraudulent, and they argue that the job sites are not aggressive in catching fraudulent postings, since they are paid for every job listing.

　　"I assumed the jobs were legitimate," said Sasha Valentine, a Johns Hopkins University graduate student who owes PayPal $700 as a result of a three-week stint processing payments for the software company in February. Ms. Valentine, who is studying information technology, said, "I feel really let down by Monster."

　　Mr. Mullins of Monster said, "This particular job posting is a rare and unfortunate incident on our site, and we regret any problems it caused any of our users."

　　Mr. Mullins added that the company was ultimately not legally responsible for damage that resulted from employment fraud, pointing to Monster's terms of use, which dismiss the site from "claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential, direct and indirect) of every kind and nature."

　　The terms of use also include this statement: "We expect that you will use caution and common sense when using this Web Site and/or the other Monster Sites."

　　HotJobs and CareerBuilder have similar policies. CareerBuilder, for instance, notes in its "House Rules" that it does not "take responsibility for the content posted by our users."

　　Ms. Haloulos said she and at least three other recent victims of the fraud are working with various federal investigatory agencies to pursue the credit card thieves, who also run a similar swindle with a different name from the one that Ms. Haloulos worked for. But she admits it may be impossible to find the criminals, since they are based in Ukraine, where the payments were sent.

　　She may, however, get at least one break. Ms. Pires of PayPal said the company would not press charges against those who were caught up in the swindle.

　　"Just for people to know that this is illegal is probably enough," she said.