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How are job services getting ahold of my resume?

I don't get it, and frankly I'm a bit freaked out: I just got an email message from a company I'd never heard of that said it had matched a couple of possible jobs to my resume, but I never went to their site, never uploaded a resume, and have no idea how they get all that information about me? What's the scoop, DaveT?

Dave's Answer:

First off, don't panic. There are lots of legitimate job sites online and if you are looking for a job, they can definitely help you out, but what you received is something entirely different. I bet it read like the following message in my inbox:

We have successfully matched your resume to several opportunites avaliable in your area. To ensure we have your correct contact information on file and ensure that you are still interested in keeping your resume active. Please visit the link below .

So we can continue to maintain our free resume service, we require our members to visit our sponsors websites before we send out avalaible job offers. Once visited, we will send you the fresh job listings that meet your personal resume profile.

http://yrsresumeservice.net/cgi-bin/maillist/r.cgi?u=...

We look forward to helping you find that perfect Job
Support Staff
The Resume Support Team

Here's the secret: this kind of thing is spam. No more, no less. This company, "YRS Resume Service", doesn't have a copy of my resume, it just has an interesting angle on sending junk and hoping that we'll respond by clicking on the link and being infected by spyware, adware, or otherwise brought somewhere other than where we'd expect.

Indeed, read the small print on the Web site and you'll see what it's all about, even if it's rather well hidden:

"Your Resume Service is a FREE service. Our revenue is generated from the willingness of our users to be reached by our marketing partners; which include advertisers and third party marketers. When registering with Your Resume Service you are allowing Your Resume Service to contact you regarding products and services which may be of interest to you."

Got that? You register your resume with them and they'll just spam the living daylight out of you. Surely not what you want!

Oh, and don't worry about them having a copy of your resume. I'm sure that they only have your email address, nothing more, and that's something that, alas, is all too easy for spammers to find.

Finally, if you are looking for a job, can I recommend reading the following articles? They deal with some of the very best job search sites online, in my opinion:

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Simpy.

Categorized: Business and Management (Article 6639)
Tagged: job search, online job search, resume services, scam, spam
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Comments

There's also the possibility that you put your resume on a major job searching site like Monster, HotJobs, Dice, etc. Recruiters regularly run through those sites and contact you.

I got a very nice job in the 90s from a headhunter finding my resume on one of those sites.

In my experience, if they want you to visit their site, register, fill out information about yourself... it's a scam. If it's a legitimate headhunter or recruiter, he/she will be very specific about the job that matched your resume and generally want to set up a phone call.

Posted by: Greg Bulmash at June 26, 2006 4:50 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!