Job hunters who register with sites like Careerbuilder and Monster.com in hopes of finding employment are discovering an unpleasant response to their resumes - spam. Lots of it. As unemployment numbers rise, spammers are rushing to take advantage. Job hunters who’ve posted their resumes on these sites are receiving an avalanche of spam in hawking everything from dubious “sales” positions to free business cards and offers of help getting government subsidies. It’s not known whether the sites are selling their user’s information, but experts suspect the spammers are getting their information in a much simpler way: by registering as employers and scanning the millions of resumes that have been posted on them. Think about it. A resume contains everything a spammer needs. Your name and address, which helps them personalize the spam, making it more likely to be read, your job info, which helps them target certain types of spam to you (but not very well. A person who lists experience as a legal secretary often ends up getting spam related to law enforcement) and of course your email address. Spammers also know that since you’re looking for a job you’re likely to read every job related email you get, and they take full advantage of it.

What’s a job hunter to do? Well taking your email address off your resume isn’t very practical as it’s becoming a more and more popular way for employers to contact applicants. Instead, set up an email address specifically for job hunting and use that. This will keep your primary address safe and spam free. (An important note-make sure the address you set up sounds professional. A potential employer will think twice about making an offer to someone whose address is ”hotbabe4u”) When registering with job hunting sites, read the fine print carefully and make sure to check any “do not share my information with third parties” boxes. If the site in question doesn’t have such an option and you can’t find anything that says they won’t sell their user information, think twice about signing up. Finally, while such sites can be helpful, don’t rely on them to find a job. Networking and phone calls are also helpful and in many cases more effective.