There are a lot of people looking for work right now and with the difficult conditions that search can become desperate. While a whatever it takes attitude is important it is also wise to be aware that there are people out there on the Internet and elsewhere that are looking to take advantage of the situation. This particularly applies to protecting yourself from identity theft by being aware of some of the scams.
Two years ago criminals in Ottawa used a fake job search site for the purposes of collecting identity information from resumes and other information submitted by job seekers.
If anything these scams are only increasing as they can be very lucrative and very difficult to recover from.
Here are some tips with regards to identity information and searching for work:
Identity Theft and your online job search
Job Seekers vulnerable to identity theft
Wikipedia on Internet Fraud
Check out the “Work at Home” schemes.
Government of Canada Identity Theft Resources
Canada’s Federal Privacy Commissioner Identity Theft Fact Sheet