ST. LANDRY PAISH, La. (KLFY) — The St. Landry Parish Government has fallen victim to an ongoing issue: false job openings posted online.

Parish government H.R. Director Candace Roberts said she first became aware of the situation when a resident reached out to the parish president, attempting to apply for a position that wasn’t available.

“I reached out to the person interested in the job, and they told me that they just googled St. Landry Parish jobs and that job listing came up,” Roberts said.

Roberts said she conducted the same search online and noticed third party websites Geebo and Salary.com

Roberts said real job postings are only done on the government’s website and through LinkedIn, and noticed the false postings listed several incorrect details that will entice people to apply, including salary.

“Just the title was correct, everything else was wrong,” Roberts said. “They had a couple of duties that were incorrect, the main thing was the salaries were completely off, so I knew they weren’t our postings.”

News 10 spoke to Chris Babin with the Better Business Bureau who said job listing scams have seen a significant spike following the pandemic.

Babin said scammers are attempting to gain the attention of potential applicants with high pay and easy responsibilities, convincing them to apply and give personal information.

Babin recommends people in search of a job always take extra steps to make sure the job opening online is legitimate.

“We encourage you to contact them outside of the platform where you saw the job posting,” Babin said. “Call the office, speak to the secretary, someone in H.R. And say I saw this job opening online and I’m interested in applying for it; is this something that is actually open with your company.”

Babin said there are also steps employers can take to prevent confusion over job postings.

“Always keep a monitor on your company,” Babin said. “Search your company online and see if there are postings online that are fraudulent or not legitimate. And when you post job postings, make sure they are accurate and make sure you are allowing these applicants who may be interested an easy way to get in touch with you to verify on their end that it is legitimate.”

Babin warns applicants if you see a job posting that is too good to be true, it probably is.