Stress-Monster Special Report . . .

This is a Special Report by Arthur P. Monster.

It seems that even in this difficult economy, when there are more job-seekers than ever, the scam-employers are coming out in force. As desperation mounts, the scammers look to take advantage of people who need a job at any cost. And, Ginger is no exception.

An example of a few of the scammers she's encountered in the last few weeks of her job search:

-An "employer" looking for a personal assistant, who was out of the country seeing to a school in Peru for orphans. He needed her to take care of "payments" for him in this country, and to look in on foster homes while he was away. A money laundering scam with an interesting philanthropic twist, it seems.

-Another "employer" who required her to purchase a "free" credit report to send to their company, full of sensitive financial data, before they could set up an interview.

-Another "employer" who wanted her to sign onto Yahoo Messenger for an interview, then tried to download a virus onto her computer.

-A particularly skeevy "employer" who wanted pictures of her, and suggested high heels and lace for the "interview".

Now, this isn't the first time she's encountered scammers in her job search; being laid off three times in the space of three years means there's been a lot of job-seeking going on. There will always be job scammers lurking on Craigslist and the like. But to see them getting so inventive now when people's situations are so desperate feels particularly offensive and upsetting. Even to a Stress-Monster, this stuff seems distasteful.

Unfortunately, Ginger has yet to receive any actual quality responses to the 126+ resume submissions she's made in the last ten days (apart from one employment agency who was uninterested in talking to her once they found out when she was relocating). She's still hopeful something will pan out in the next 27 days, but if these scammers are anything to go by, that hope seems bleak. It's starting to look like the scammers are the only ones "hiring".

This is Stress-Monster, with a Special Report.