There are all sorts of scammers out there preying on jobseekers. People who sell CV writing services, people selling finance, people selling careers advice and so on. They used to get one’s details by trawling CVs on Monster.com for telephone numbers. This is new: someone has direct access to the DWP data.
Two days ago I applied for JobSeeker’s Allowance online. This morning I logged into Universal JobMatch for the first time in a long time. It seems they have changed IT provider for this service and, annoyingly, all my previous searches and CVs have disappeared. Does it not dawn on the twats who arrange these contracts that millions of people are inconvenienced by this sort of sloppy transfer of services? Hours and hours spent crafting tailored CVs and tweaking the searches so they work just so, all wiped out by someone saving a few quid by not specifying the existing data gets carried across. Universal JobMatch is supposed to be a service to citizens, not a punishment for being unemployed.
Anyway, the phone just rang and they hung up as I got to it. Number: 01709 263618. So I did a search for that and – how odd. Other people have had the same experience.
“Sunday afternoon saying works and pensions. Very pushy but was involved in dinner so did not go to phone to speak. Think a scammer that has got info from jsa application. Rang number back out for service lol 01709 263618”
“Yeah this has got to be some kind of jsa scam, Called claiming to be from dwp about a recent claim after 25mins discovered they needed to confirm account details. Says it all.”
“Just back from JSA’s local offices. Phone rang and I ignored it because I did not recognize the number. I think it some sort of phone phishing about PPI that I “have forgotten I had” or some “tax overpayment” or something. Same old tricks!!”
“again with the other comments, this number rang within mins of me completing a JSA application no one on the end, not sure how a pishing site can get details off a government web site with all the GDPR stuff”
“Same experience as other people, completed online application for JSA and later the same day received call from this number. No voice message left and when attempted to call back unable to contact. Will be blocking”
So the data on either the JSA system is not secure. I wonder who it has been outsourced to?
And the spam has begun too to the email address I used with them. “Preparing and Selling Your Business Workshop”, only £95.
So you can be sure the government’s JSA / DWP system is totally insecure. The telephone numbers and the email addresses are available to scammers, either by being hacked or being given away r being stolen or by being sold.