LinkedIn, Monster take down over 1,000 fake job postings after CBC investigation

Detailed summary

More than 1,500 misleading job postings on LinkedIn and Monster were actually connected to a multi-level marketing company, a CBC News visual investigation has found.

More than 1,500 misleading job postings — offering remote work, no experience needed — have been taken down from LinkedIn and Monster after a CBC visual investigation revealed the listings funnelled unsuspecting applicants to a multi-level marketing (MLM) company that asked for money.

CBC connected a network of travel-related pages posting suspicious jobs — positions like "Work From Home Travel Planner and Virtual Customer Support Representative" — to a U.S.-based MLM called Evolution Travel. Some of the roles promised to pay up to $75,000 US per year.

Applicants were quickly directed to join virtual information sessions, where they were asked to pay hundreds of dollars up front, followed by a monthly subscription fee. The program promised to teach members how to make money from booking travel as an independent agent and recruiting others into the program, taking a cut of their commissions.

The companies went by names like Wanderwell Collective, Professional Travel Hub, Remote-Careers, Sky Land & Ocean Travel and Sunkissed Getaways.

Many of the jobs did not require experience and promised to pay up to $75,000 US. (Illustration: Matthew Hoddy/CBC; LinkedIn)

"This is disgusting," said Jay Jones, a Chicago-based job listing investigator who CBC shared its findings with. "They catch you with the lure of the fake job. The money is great, [successful applicants] get to stay at home. You have to pay to get work — that's not how work works."

Misleading job postings — including ones that require payment or lead to MLMs — are strictly prohibited on platforms like LinkedIn and other job sites.

"It feels in so many ways that we're living in a funhouse mirror," said Vass Bednar, managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute, a public policy think-tank that focuses on economic resilience and digital sovereignty.

These postings risk "eroding confidence — confidence in the self and confidence that there is, frankly, meaningful work out there for people that is worth pursuing."

Opening of the article, excerpted from CBC News. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.