The Portfolio Group has been made aware of an increase in spam messages who are fraudulently impersonating employees of recruitment firms.
These scammers pretend to be employees of the business using a fake name, and message potential jobseekers or the public in the guise of having a job vacancy. These vacancies are often vague roles that offer high salaries or commissions, but then are asked to share personal details such as formal identification or even provide a deposit/bank transfer.
Below is an example of scam texts recently received:
Please note that these individuals who are sharing fraudulent job opportunities and asking individuals to disclose their personal information or asking for money, are not employed by The Portfolio Group or any of its divisions; Payroll, HR, Credit Control or Procurement.
So far, no-one contacted using our name has been on our database, however 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 and if in doubt, please contact us.
To help protect yourself against potential scammers, please note the following:
Verified email addresses
The Portfolio Group employees conduct email communication via the following domains:
@theportfoliogroup.co.uk
@portfoliopayroll.com
@portfoliohrreward.com
@portfoliocreditcontrol.com
@portfolioprocurement.com
@portfoliopayroll.ca
We do not use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other free online mail services to communicate with jobseekers.
No initial communication via text message
Whilst recruiters from The Portfolio Group do reach out to individuals who have not applied for a new role and present them with job opportunities, we will attempt to call you and email you before we make any communication via text message.
Interview process
The Portfolio Group does not make job offers on behalf of our clients without a prior conversation and in most cases, only after a formal interview process. Any formal job offers presented by The Portfolio Group employees will be sent from one of our verified business email accounts.
No payments from jobseekers
The Portfolio Group will never ask candidates for any form of payment as part of the recruitment process – be it for service fees, visa fees, taxes, or background checks.
No requests for personal information during the early stages of a recruitment process
The Portfolio Group may request scanned copies of passports during the later stages of the recruitment process. However, these requests will always come from a verified 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. We will not ask for this before this point.
For more information on the checks carried out by employers, visit the government’s website.
Please ensure that you verify that you are communicating with an employee of The Portfolio Group before submitting any personal information or documentation.
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 without verifying their identity.
If you wish to verify the legitimacy of a message, email or phone call that you receive from an individual claiming to be from us, you can contact us directly on 020 7247 9455
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 employee or consultant at The Portfolio Group
If you do receive what you suspect is a scam messages you should also file a report with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and forward the message to 7726