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You Open Attachments From Strangers for a Living.

Published: Nov 11, 2026 7:31 PM  |  By Tricia Tamkin  |  Viewed: 37
Category: Expert Advice, Productivity, Recruiting  |  Tags:

My first job is to protect you.

My second job is to make you money.

 

How search firms get robbed

Recruiting is the only profession where opening unsolicited files from unknown people is the core job function. Hackers noticed and they have your number.

 

The poisoned resume

Attack groups apply to real jobs with fake resumes that install backdoors. Their own playbooks name recruiters as the target, because opening attachments is the job.

 

The fake candidate

Stolen identities, deepfaked interviews, laptop farms. You place them and collect the fee, and your client just hired a foreign operative.

 

The rerouted fee

Someone reads your inbox for weeks, waits for an invoice to go out, then sends “updated banking details” from your own address.

 

The database you’re sitting on

Comp data, addresses, sometimes SSNs, every fee agreement you’ve signed. A hacker sees a payday behind weak locks.

 

The shared password

Shared logins, high turnover, ex-employees with working credentials. Infostealers harvest the rest and sell it for pennies.

 

The AI leak

Candidate PII pasted into free chatbots with training turned on is out of your custody forever. And hidden instructions inside resumes now target the AI tools screening them.

Tricia Tamkin

Written by

Tricia Tamkin

Tricia Tamkin is a recruiter, speaker and trainer. She has owned her search firm, Wolftec, for 20 years, and is also a partner at Moore eSSentials. Tricia simultaneously runs a full desk, trains hundreds of recruiters per year, speaks at industry events and has a reputation for filling jobs where others fail. She has been featured in over a dozen national publications to include Entrepreneur, USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune.

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