How to Spot Job Scams

There are several warning signs and red flags to be aware of when looking for jobs. Often job offer scams involve high-paying part-time and remote jobs. To make sure that the job offer you have found received is by a real company and not a scam, follow these steps.

Check the Contact Information

In job scams, fraudsters often use cell phone numbers instead of office numbers and offer job opportunities in international locations in their job scams.

Compare contact information on the employer's official website to the information you received (URL, address, phone number) in order to make sure it is not a scam.

Is the E-Mail a Fake?

Scammers frequently fake e-mails with free web-based email accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo. They use slightly modified versions of the official employer's  domain name (e.g. @eevonik.com) for their scams.

Evonik employees communicate exclusively via the domain "@evonik.com". Also automatically generated e-mails contain the system's domain name and can be identified as the system used by Evonik, e.g. myhr@evonik.com.

Learn more about how to distinguish scams from genuine e-mails sent by Evonik here.

Question the Writing Style

Scammers often make obvious spelling or grammatical errors and pass on poorly formatted documents for job scams.

Job offers by legitimate companies like Evonik always have the same style. To check, you can find all Evonik jobs in our  job market.

Official Job Ads

Scammers may also impersonate employers and use genuine job postings from reputable companies like Evonik to make their fraudulent offers appear more legitimate.

To verify the authenticity of a job and identify scams, check the job search on the official website of the company, contact their official recruitment team directly or get in contact with employees on official social media channels. These channels are usually verified through a blue checkmark.

Job Interview

Evonik does not advertise job offers and hire employees without conducting a job interview. Our hiring process usually includes one or more in-person interviews, either on-site or via Microsoft Teams, also for work-from-home-jobs.

Take Enough Time to Respond

Recruiters insisting on urgency ("Please respond within 24 hours") could indicate a scam contact. With Evonik, you usually have enough time to think carefully about the offer made to you and to ask questions.

The Most Important Part

Real companies will never ask you for money or irrelevant and unnecessary personal information. Official jobs from Evonik do not contain any request for credit card data, a social security number, cryptocurrency, deposits, payment of visa fees, taxes, travel expenses or bank account details, etc.

In some countries you may be required to provide passport or ID card details, but only if you have successfully completed the hiring process and received an official offer from Evonik.

Protect Yourself: What You Can Do

We recommend the following safety practices to protect yourself from potential job scams.

Do not share contact information, personal or financial information, or documentation with a potential employer until you are sure it is not an employment scam but a legitimate job.

If you doubt the legitimacy of a job and suspect a scam, visit our job board and check to see if the job is posted there.

Do not engage in further communication if you suspect it may be a scam. If you suspect personnel fraud and Evonik is mentioned, contact Evonik directly.

Change your password if you have had contact with a potential scammer.

Enable multi-factor authentication and other security measures offered by your online services.

Avoid opening attachments from unknown senders via e-mail, text message or social media, it might be a scammer.

Install antivirus software and update it regularly.

Install all recommended software patches from any operating system and software vendors.

If you believe you are the target of a scam or a fake in connection with Evonik and are asked for personal information like financial or security data, please contact us and report the job scam incident via the Evonik  contact page.