I’ve been reading more lately about the misuse of public information posted by job candidates on the major online job sites such as Monster.com, HotJobs.com, and CareerBuilder.com.

A few years ago, most of the reports of misuse centered around the unauthorized use of resumes and candidates receiving calls trying to sell them services instead of legitimate career opportunities.  However, it looks like the recent trend has taken this misuse from being a nuisance to being criminal.

The Better Business Bureau and the FTC have seen a major rise in complaints about the misuse of personal information obtained from job boards; mostly where scam artists used this information to obtain bogus credit cards and loans.

The major job boards have been expanding their efforts to attempt to prevent the misuse of this information but it is the ultimate responsibility of the job seeker to be very wary of posting their personal information on any public website.