Flash: Layoffs Fuel Uptick in Employment Scams

Layoffs Fuel Uptick in Employment Scams

Product Serial: F-2023-01-18a

TLP:CLEAR

In this flash report, ZeroFox Intelligence shares details on the uptick in employment scams as a result of layoffs across industries.

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View the full report here.

Scope Note

ZeroFox Intelligence is derived from a variety of sources, including—but not limited to—curated open-source accesses, vetted social media, proprietary data sources, and direct access to threat actors and groups through covert communication channels. Information relied upon to complete any report cannot always be independently verified. As such, ZeroFox applies rigorous analytic standards and tradecraft in accordance with best practices and includes caveat language and source citations to clearly identify the veracity of our Intelligence reporting and substantiate our assessments and recommendations. All sources used in this particular Intelligence product were identified prior to 12:00 PM (EST) on January 17, 2023; per cyber hygiene best practices, caution is advised when clicking on any third-party links.

Key Findings

• A recent uptick in layoffs across industries has seen increased efforts by threat actors to target job seekers with employment scams.
• The tech industry has been particularly hard-hit with layoffs since 2022.
• Threat actors utilize employment-related scams in order to obtain sensitive personal and financial information on their victims.
• Fake job postings in 2022 cost victims nearly double what they did in 2020.
• Even though organizations are not responsible for the creation of fraudulent job postings, their brands can be negatively impacted by these scams.