London restaurant warns public of online job scam

A local restaurant is warning the public of a fakejob posting that went up on online last week.

Scott Wesseling, the general manager of Black Trumpet Restaurant, says he was surprised at thelarge number of job candidates asking about a server position that was posted on Indeed Canada last week.

"Something was up," Wesseling said."We started getting a lot of phone calls from people asking for this individual named Christine who apparently had emailed these candidates for interviews."

He says that's when they realized a fake job advertisement had been posted.

The restaurant decided to contact Indeed Canada immediately and they were able to quickly removethe post.

Wesseling also reached out to London Police and alerted the public through a Facebook post.

But, the job posting on the website had already been up for at least a few hours giving jobseekers likeTrinity Luckas time to apply.

The 19-year-old had already sent in her resume and had gotten a quickreply back from a person named Christine Kim, before realizing the post was fake.

"It's really scary," she said. "My home address, where I've worked, where I go to school, all of that is on there. Now when I'm home alone, I'm on edge because you don't know what they want and it's obviously nothing good," she added.

Luckas says looking forwardshe'll be removing her address from her resume, but she's unsure of which site to trust when it comes to job postings.

"It'salarming because Indeedis such a big job posting site, so you'd think there'd bemore background checks," she said.

Wesseling saw the post on Indeed Canada before it was taken down. He says anyone could've perceived it as being real.

"It was very professionally done andthere was a very thorough explanation of job requirements," he said.

CBC News reached out to Indeed Canada to obtain more information regarding background checks and verification when allowing posts to go online.

"The quality of the job solicitations available on our site is central to our mission," Madalina Secareanu, the company's corporate communications manager, wrote in an email. "We also encourage job seekers to refer to our Guidelines for Safe Job Searchdesigned to help job seekers recognize and avoid fraudulent tactics," she added.

Wesselingsaysone of the most concerning things about the incident was that the person who posted this on their behalfwas askingpotential candidates to meet them off-site, something he says Black Trumpet Restaurant would never request.

"We're just wanting the public to be very vigilant and safe and to feel free to call and inquire if we're actually hiring," he added.

CBC News has contacted London Police Services and is waiting to hear a response regarding the incident.