The age of the con artist.

I've experienced this week, probably the oddest job spoofs I've ever seen.

I applied for a marketing job which had all the usual list of duties and required skills.

Very quickly, I received a response telling me that I was on a shortlist of three. The next step was to follow a link and take an intelligence test (their words).

I'd four days to earn 800 points, the fastest to do so would receive their job offer by post.

The link led to one of those sites that has you filling out surveys. I'd no intention of doing so and immediately went back to indeed, to review the original ad. I followed a link to the clowns who'd run it. The alleged advertiser was a company called Guardian Support https://www.guardiansupport.co.uk/

I reported the job as a possible spoof and indeed removed it almost immediately. Also the links in the e mail for me to take part in the competition to get this highly prized job are gone too.

I used the company reg number found on the Guardian website and checked them out on Experian business.

Wasn't shocked to find they have a credit rating out of 100 of 15.

They are part of an investment company called Bushell Investment Group.

Draw your own conclusion as to what sort of outfit this is.

As to where the benefit to anyone filling out surveys was as part of this deal, still excapes me. I took them to task and wasn;t shocked when no reponse was forthcoming.

Next encounter.

Chatting with a friend of mine who just happens to have applied for a marketing job with a company I'd applied for and been interviewed, she had the same misgivings as I.

So, I did an Experian check on them and got a creedit score of ZERO.

Only a fool would knowingly place their emoloyment future in the hands of outifts that look on record as probably not being reliable for next months wages.

Yet the government are now commanding the DWP increase pressure on those claiming Universal Credit to find a job in four weeks in their chosen field or face a reduction in their UC.

Job seeking is hard and unpleasant a job in itself. Now, we have this kind of arse hattery going on to further complicate the issue. This will be the fourth dodgy situation I've uncovered in as many months.

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to check out a company using a tool like Experian. Great pity. Perhaps the DWP should consider givng jobseekers this privilege instead of running schemes like Restart where they teach you how to stick a stamp on an envelope the right way round and other useful skills.