Ambition would like to raise awareness of the ever-increasing number of individuals who are fraudulently impersonating employees of recruitment firms.
We have been made aware of scammers who are impersonating Ambition employees on platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp. The scammers may also replace their WhatsApp/Telegram photos with the Ambition logo or images, create fake virtual business cards or fake social media accounts.
These scammers are actively reaching out to some of our candidates and clients as well as the general public, with attractive job opportunities via these messaging platforms. Often, these job opportunities offer high salaries or commissions, or ways to earn extra income. As part of the scam, victims may be asked to share their phone numbers, and may also be asked for monetary compensation through bank transfers, wire transfers or PayPal.
Below is an example of a Phishing text a client recently received:
Please note that these individuals who are sharing fraudulent job opportunities and asking individuals to disclose their personal information or soliciting money payments, are not employed by Ambition. We encourage you to take extra precautions if you receive unsolicited messages or emails asking to provide your personal/confidential information. Please verify the authenticity of such requests before providing your information (i.e. full name, personal identification number, CV, etc.).
To help protect yourself against potential scammers, please note the following recruitment practices employed by Ambition:
1) Verified email address
Ambition employees conduct email communication via the following domain: @ambition.co.uk. We will never use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other free online mail services to communicate with jobseekers.
2) Formal interview process
Ambition’s recruiters do reach out to individuals who have not applied for a vacancy by presenting them with job opportunities. However, Ambition will not make job offers without performing a formal interview process. Any formal job offers presented by Ambition employees will be sent from a business email account (@ambition.co.uk).
3) No requests for payments from jobseekers
Ambition will never ask for any form of payment as part of the recruitment process – be it for service fees, visa fees, taxes, or background checks.
4) No requests for personal information during early stages of the recruitment process
Ambition may request scanned copies of passports/identity cards or driver’s licences at later stages of the recruitment process. However, these requests will always come from an @ambition.co.uk email address and will only be required when you are already in a formal interview process. This is part of regulatory requirements by the UK government which require all firms to check a candidate's right to work in the UK before hiring.
Do ensure that you verify that you are communicating with an Ambition employee before submitting your identification or passport number. For further information on Ambition's data protection and privacy policy, please click here.
Additional Ways to Protect Yourself from Job Scams:
1) Do not respond to text messages and calls from unknown and suspicious numbers.
2) Do not transfer money to people you do not know or have not met, even if they claim to be representing a company.
3) Do not share personal and sensitive information such as your back account/credit card details, passport number or phone number.
If you wish to verify the legitimacy of a message, email or phone call that you receive from an individual claiming to be from Ambition, you can contact us directly at +44 (0)20 7404 4004.
Please avoid any further communication with the individual or click on any links within the message until you have verified that the message you received is from an Ambition consultant.
