If you’re somebody who’s recently looked for a job, you already know it’s hard out there. Finding specific jobs in certain areas is difficult to do. On top of that, there isn’t much in the way of legitimate remote work. Now, a Washington woman is speaking up because she’s noticed something quite shifty and disheartening on her TikTok feed. Apparently, job scams are becoming more common than ever. For those who are already struggling to find work, this makes the search so much harder.
TikToker Kaylee (@theexhaustedmillennial) shows just how absurd it is that a lot of job postings online are actually scams. She starts her video by showing the scam ads she’s talking about. In one of the ads, a woman is making food and talking about how she “accepted a fully remote position.” She shares job sites that she had good luck with and ones that she didn’t have good luck with. Then, Kaylee shares another ad and it’s a different woman but she says the exact same things! They’re clearly reading from a script and it’s so disheartening because people could easily fall for this. This is especially true when they’re desperately searching for any legitimate work they can find.
Kaylee goes on to say that it’s “so disappointing and frankly takes advantage of people who are just looking for honest information on how to find a job.” She thinks it’s extremely wrong that these ads can run without “disclosing the fact that these are ads.” That’s where they become a scam. Kaylee says that they scam people by making you sign up with an included fee to use their job board. This puts already financially vulnerable people in a difficult position that takes from them even further.
Kaylee said that she’s surprised that they’re just out there “getting away with this.” It makes you wonder how many job board postings are legitimate and what ads are complete scams. She goes on to say, “At the end of the day, nothing is real. Nothing ever feels real anymore and this is just evidence of that.”
One commenter shared on Kaylee’s video, “My FYP is almost nothing but ads these days, I’m sick of it.” Another shared, “It’s so calculated and manipulative, doing some kind of chose so it feels like you’re a casual friend just hanging out with them (so it seems they have no ulterior motive.” It’s funny because almost every one of these ads appears this way. It does seem like they’ve been increasing lately, or at least I’ve noticed it on my personal feeds. It is increasingly difficult to tell what’s real and what’s a scam at times. People searching for jobs need to be wary of everything they see. It’s easy to feel desperate and as if a job is legit and talking the good talk. But in the end, you could be signing up for a scam that will merely take from you without ever looking back.
