Careers at Topel Forman
Protect Yourself from Hiring Scams
When applying for a position, candidates will be redirected to our Applicant Tracking System (ATS) hosted by ADP Workforce Now and/or Greenhouse. During our application process, we collect necessary candidate information such as candidate name and contact information, resume, general application questions about a candidate’s qualifications, and EEO reporting information.
As part of our interview process, candidates will have an initial phone interview. Candidates we wish to learn more about will be asked into our office for an in-person. An offer will never be extended without visiting one of our offices and having contact with several members of our team.
In addition, we will not request sensitive personal information until a formal job offer has been extended and accepted. The information collected will be limited to relevant details to complete a background investigation. As part of our onboarding process, we will collect other pertinent information to verify your identity and eligibility to work in the US, and complete the set-up of your employment file. The transmission of sensitive personal information will be requested only by secure email. We will never request it by chat or unsecured email.
The FBI has created a Public Service Announcement regarding hiring scams, which includes the following indicators of a potential cybercriminal and tips to protect yourself. To view the full contents of this FBI Public Service Announcement, please visit https://www.ic3.gov/media/2020/200121.aspx. Below are the relevant excerpts:
Indicators
- Interviews are not conducted in-person or through a secure video call.
- Interviews are conducted via teleconference applications that use email addresses instead of phone numbers.
- Potential employers contact victims through non-company email domains and teleconference applications.
- Potential employers require employees to purchase start-up equipment from the company.
- Potential employers request credit card information.
- Job postings appear on job boards, but not on the companies’ websites.
- Recruiters or managers do not have profiles on the job board, or the profiles do not seem to fit their roles.
Tips to Protect Yourself
- Legitimate companies will ask for PII and bank account information for payroll purposes AFTER hiring employees. This information is safer to give in-person. If in-person contact is not possible, a video call with the potential employer can confirm identity, especially if the company has a directory against which to compare employee photos.
- Never send money to someone you meet online, especially by wire transfer.
- Never provide credit card information to an employer.
- Never provide bank account information to employers without verifying their identity.
- Never share your Social Security number or other PII that can be used to access your accounts with someone who does not need to know this information.
- Before entering PII online, make sure the website is secure by looking at the address bar. The address should begin with “https://”, not “http://”.
- However: criminals can also use https:// to give victims a false sense of security. A decision to proceed should not be based solely upon the use of “https://”.
If you feel you have disclosed sensitive information to a fraudulent job listing or through a hiring scam, you may wish to contact your local law enforcement and identity theft/fraud resources such as those listed below for advice: