Recruiter-Rater

Myself, in Pittsburgh, and a friend, in Houston, have been receiving an increasing number of inquiries about contract/contract-to-hire/permanent jobs in the Technical Writing field lately from recruiters around the country that seem to be ACTUALLY based in India.

When I receive an inquiry from a recruiter in broken English, whether by email or by phone, it immediately raises my hackles. Generally, the emails are poorly written and provide no detail of the specific job. The phone numbers are either "Private" or when reverse searched generally turn out to be cell phones.

When an email lists a phone number and a fax number, they usually are from different area codes and states. The majority of the phone numbers seem to be in New Jersey. Most of the websites seem, if reviewed without skepticism, to be somewhat legitimate. A deeper investigation into the actual owners of the companies and/or websites, however, usually results in dead ends.

In my dealings with any of these recruiters, I generally have suggested to them that they buy a map. I don't see relocating for a 3-month contract position at below-market rates; and I certainly have no intention of commuting 300 or more miles. I suppose if you lived in Rhode Island, anywhere in the state would be "nearby".

I at first sent resumes to these recruiters naively assuming that they had genuine positions for which I might be qualified. It finally dawned on me that once I sent my resume, 75% never contacted me again. Another 10% contacted me once to ask further questions. An additional 10% contacted me repeatedly saying I was being submitted for a job in another city. And 5% contacted me and changed their story regarding the rate of pay for the job.

Can anyone out there tell me what exactly these people are doing with our resumes? It is my firm belief that they actually have no connection to any legitimate employer. I believe any positions that they actually post on any of the job boards are merely copies of someone else's legitimate posting. When they attempt to reword it, they generally fail miserably at maintaining the integrity of the job description.

Why are they doing this? What do they stand to gain? I can't even see it as possible identity theft because all they have is a work history, a name, an address, and phone numbers.

Thanks for any explanation that you can offer.

P.S. - I may have a story in the near future regarding one of these so-called agencies. It seems a number of them list "business partners" on their sites and many of these companies are totally unaware of said relationship. I have a friend involved with a business partner investigating.

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