Volkswagen: "TNVWJOBS.com Not An Official Job Site"
Comments Below: 3
Thousands of people have already applied for work at Volkswagen's new Chattanooga plant. Tomorrow, 100 applicants will attend an invitation only hiring event, as the automaker looks to fill 50 positions. But, a word of caution surrounds the application process.
Yesterday, someone posted a link at WDEF.com "Tennessee Volkswagen Jobs." We checked into the website, which seeks personal information from Volkswagen applicants. It doesn't ask for your social security or drivers license numbers, but it's not affiliated with Volkswagen, and some say, that could be a problem.
Gidget Knight, VP of Chattanooga's Better Business Bureau, says "I'm not saying don't do business with them, but I would be leary of them."
Two weeks ago, tnvwjobs.com went live. The website claims to be building a database of people interested in finding employment in Chattanooga with Volkswagen. The site offers to submit your application to potential direct and third party employers associated with the V-W plant. All job seekers need to do is submit some personal information.
Knight suggests applicants using sites like this to "look for a privacy policy and what kind of information they're looking for and what they plan to do with the information they get." BBB officials say without such a policy, your information could be sold without your knowledge to other companies for telemarketing or direct mail purposes.
VW spokesperson Jill Bratina says tnvwjobs.com is not an official Volkswagen recruiter. She says right now applicants who want to make sure their information gets to Volkswagen, should do that directly with the automaker at: http://www.vwgroupofamericacareers.futurestep.com/
The person who registered tnvwjobs.com used a company that protects their identity. No contact information could be found on the site, either. Mark Campbell, owner of Manpower, a reputable employment agency, says "if there's not a phone number or an address associated with that website then it's a good idea to back away from it immediately, cause you don't know where that information is going and who's hands its going to turn up into."
Campbell says recruiters need to get to know an applicant, to place them in a job they'd be comfortable doing. "Whenever we hire someone we have an applicant process that goes to an interview process and through an assessment process and a formal interview."
WDEF News 12 made several attempts over the last 24 hours to contact those behind tnvwjobs.com. The one reply we received came from the company protecting the website creator's identity. It basically said without a court order, they would not release that information.
More coverage of Volkswagen at:
Guess where the application page takes you.
Submitted by Guest (not verified) on August 6, 2008 - 3:30am.
Go to the signup page. Move your mouse over the submit button, read the link in your status bar, it takes you to an email marketing service.
They are probably just harvesting email addresses for spam resale.
Bad ideal.
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This is a domain reseller account through Godaddy.com
Submitted by Guest (not verified) on August 6, 2008 - 3:23am.
Joe,
This is a free Godaddy.com website tonight hosting account owned by protectapro.com who resells Godaddy.com internet services.
Anyone can become a reseller of Godaddy for about 99.00 per year. They also own hillaryclintongiftcards.com.
As a matter of fact, anyone can register a domain at Godaddy and get the free hosting account used. The ad box frame at the top is what godaddy.com puts on the website of a free hosting account. So for 9.99, you good to go for a year.
Be warned. They [tnvwjobs.com] do not have a privacy policy so you information is not safe. They can do what ever they want. Do not ever blindly submit your email address or info without a spelled our privacy policy.
Also be warned that a mistake people make is they use the same password for emails and sites they sign up for to make surfing easier. So later on you will be asked to register your resume and password protect it. Guess what. 80% of home users use the same password for everything. Now your web identity isn't safe.
If the news media finds their work has been cut and pasted into their website, they can notify Google and Godaddy that a DMARC violation has happened.
Domains by Proxy, Inc. is owned by the Godaddy.com company also. The support number at TNvwjobs.com is Godaddy's general reseller support phone number too.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2599
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There Are No "Official" Job Sites
I would like to commend Joe Legge and WDEF New for alerting Hamilton County job applicants to potentially problematic, or even fraudulent, websites attempting to take advantage of the current economic situation. We applaud WDEF for raising awareness in such matters.
As an American, U.S.-based online recruitment and management search firm currently engaged in searches related to the planned new manufacturing operations of German companies, however, we would like to point out that there are NO "official" job sites related to those projects.
We have yet to learn of any "official" job site in this context labeled as such by the State of Tennessee, Hamilton County or the City of Chattanooga, for that matter.
Yes, there are "approved" suppliers for the Volkswagen group. Yet, a vast number of related positions will be offered by companies providing infrastructure support and services to Volkswagen.
The majority of those *American* companies is NOT required to do business through an "official Volkswagen recruiter" (VW spokesperson), and will turn to locally, regionally and nationwide active firms like ours.
As an American recruitment agency - not a "official Volkswagen recruiter - which is based on, and believes in, free enterprise, we feel it is important to point this out. We strongly believe that this is in the interest of Hamilton County's workforce community, as well as local small and medium-sized businesses.
Gerd Meissner
Managing Partner
Germany-USA Career Center
http://www.germany-usa.com