BUDA, Texas (KXAN) — Sherry Dooner has been job searching for about three months.

“Very frustrating,” she says.

Last week, she found the perfect position.

“This is a great opportunity; here’s this job that’s close to home, I’m qualified,” Dooner says.

Or so she thought until she got this reply to her application:

Sherry Dooner received this email after applying to what seemed like a job with the City of Buda.

“This doesn’t sound right. This doesn’t seem right,” she remembers thinking.

So Dooner called Buda’s HR department.

She was right.

“[They] told me that no, it wasn’t an actual job posting,” she says.

Now, Dooner doesn’t know who has her personal information.

“I had already provided my resume at that point and so I knew that my name and address and phone number were all out there for a person who didn’t actually have a job,” she says.

Dooner says she reported the fake job post both to Indeed and at Buda City Hall where she found out she wasn’t the only person who fell victim to the fraudulent post.

A message from Indeed indicated that the company had actually gotten multiple reports about the fake Buda job posting.

A spokesperson for Indeed told Dooner that they removed the job posting after several complaints. (KXAN/Tahera Rahman)

We reached out to Indeed to ask them how they vet job postings.

They say Indeed has a team for search quality.

They use different techniques to review job ads and decide if they’re suitable or not.

Indeed didn’t say what those techniques were.

“This is the first time that we’ve dealt with anything like that,” says Buda spokesperson David Marino.

Marino says his team didn’t find out about the fake post until neighbors started calling.

He says they’ve been dealing with an increase in scams, in general, and urges the public to stay vigilant.

“You see something that does not seem legitimate or familiar to you, call us.”

That’s exactly what Dooner plans to do and hopes others will, too.

“You just have to have a more wary eye, unfortunately,” she says.

“Initially, I felt discouraged but you just got to keep at it,” says Dooner.

SPOTTING THE SIGNS

Marino says job postings for the city should always link back to Buda’s website.

He also says any emails would come from the extension “@ci.buda.tx.us.”

Paying attention to the questions being asked could also help you narrow down whether or not a job posting is legitimate.

There are several questions employers are not legally allowed to ask during the hiring process:

  • What year you were born or when you graduated high school? That is to eliminate any potential age discrimination.
  • Employers also can’t ask whether or not you are a U.S. citizen or ask you to provide your birth certificate.
  • Whether or not you have a disability or have ever filed a workers compensation claim.
  • Asking about religious beliefs, your race, or whether or not you are pregnant.
  • Employers will only ask for a social security when it’s absolutely necessary — like conducting a background check- before making an offer.