A Funny Thing Happened… (File under SocialMedia Recruiter-As-Scapegoat Scams)

You all know that companies hire us to make that "first contact" with people - you know, it's when they don't have the time to do it themselves (cough cough) or the manpower (cough cough) or - well - you know.

Something gets in the way.

So we do it for them.

Yesterday: My phone rings. Ding a ling a ding.

An excited male identifies himself and tells me he just received an email and wants to know what company I'm with (it's plainly stated on my email) and asks me do I work for XYZ Corporation.

Not quite having caught his name but understanding the call is coming from an email I sent only moments before I answer:

Yes, this is Maureen and I'm working with XYZ Company and they've asked me to contact you about a Director of Quality position they have coming open.

You had applied for a Food Scientist position with them last summer and as that job was filled by an internal candidate they were wondering if you might be interested in speaking with them now about the Quality Director position they have opening at their headquarters.

Yadda yadda yadda on the other end.

I sense excited interest mixed with caution.

No I am not employed by XYZ Corporation. I work as a consultant to them. They've asked me to contact you to see if you might be interested in a Quality Director position they have opening at their headquarters.

(Didn't I just say that?)

Yes, I understand you're the Quality Manager there.

No, I'm not a recruiter.

My company name is TechTrak and I am located in Cincinnati, OH.

You would be? Great! Has anything changed on your resume?

Okay - would you like to update it and send it to me and I'll forward it to XYZ Company with the news that you're interested and one of their recruiters will get in touch with you?

That's wonderful - I'll look for it this afternoon! Good-bye!

Nothing's ever easy and it seems to be getting uneasier.

Within a half hour or so I get an email from one of the HR Managers at the Company:

Call me.

I call her.

"Maureen? I just received a call from yadda yadda yadda…" and so the story goes that "Amoo" had hung up the phone with me and called the company to check my story!

To check my story!

The HR Manager just wanted to make sure all the ps and qs were being minded because this particular candidate seemed to express concern over "who" might be calling him and the information I "might" be asking for.

I assured her I wasn't stepping outside any boundaries and we went over some of the guidelines of most concern to her.

No - no problems there. No lines crossed, I promised.

Another half hour passes and I notice an email from the same guy in my box with his resume attached and a nice note, would I please forward his resume - yadda yadda yadda.

This time I did call him.

"Amoo? I just received your resume - thank you - and I will send it on to Lisa at XYZ Company. I understand the two of you spoke this morning," and I laugh but I'm really a little more than irritated but I'm trying to contain it.

He knew what I was talking about.

"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to get you in any kind of trouble," he apologized. "I just needed to be sure you were who you said you were!"

"Who I said I was?" I inquired.

(Who I said I was?!)

"You called me, remember? I emailed you."

"I know - I know - but you seemed to know quite a lot about me," he said.

"Did you apply for a job with XYZ Company?" I ask. "They gave me your information to contact you-"

"Yes, but I received a really strange call here at work about two weeks ago" he interrupted. "A person who said they were from a recruiting company and they were asking me all kinds of strange questions - they asked me my date of birth and I know they're not allowed to ask that!" he exclaimed.

"No, you're right," I agreed. "Did you apply anywhere else other than XYZ Company?" I asked.

"No," he quickly answered. "Only XYZ Company. It kind of freaked me out," and the way he said "freaked me out" almost made me laugh except for the fact that the subject is so darn serious!

"That is strange," I agreed and then a lightbulb went off.

"Are you on social media?" I asked.

"You mean Facebook? Not much anymore - once in a while to check on my kids but not very often," he confessed.

"Do you list your place of work there?" I asked.

"I don't think so," and then he paused.

"I'm on LinkedIn," he said gravely. "My company's name is listed there."

He seemed to be putting the pieces together.

For once I felt like I didn't have to.

"I never thought about that information being used that way," he stated, seemingly half-to-himself.

"It is public information," I couldn't resist.

So here's the question, Recruitersphere.

What's next?