I made online applications to two different jobs with the same company Giant Eagle-a grocer based in Pittsburgh, PA with stores throughout most of PA, OH, WV and I think TN... The next day i received a text message from this number (originating in CA) which said; Jeffrey, I would really like to talk to you about your search on our job board. CALL 6502004721. TEXT STOP TO CANCEL.
I came to this page to learn about the origin of the text. I wasn't born yesterday, and not quite as stupid as I look... but since I don't want to disqualify myself from genuine responses I simply replied to the message with; "Apologies, but WHICH job board are you inquiring about..."
I suspect that some pre-selected "partner" of Giant Eagle must have an arrangement to purchase or otherwise obtain user data from what I THOUGHT was simply a corporate site.
I live in Ohio but grew up in Pittsburgh. At that time Giant Eagle was just a local grocer...They've greatly expanded over the past couple of decades but can't imagine any reputable corporation would sell my data.
In all fairness, I DID stumble onto some other unrelated sites that listed Giant Eagle jobs while trying to locate the GE corporate site, but immediately backed out and don't believe I entered any data before I did—but it's possible. I did not use my cell phone to do the search.
It's bad enough that people who are out of work and go through all the Online crap associated with applying to some faceless entity that offers no means of following up to a resume that they THINK they sent. But it's utterly disturbing that those same unfortunates would become targets of (what will probably end up being) some telemarketing service or phishing scam to extort money or information from them.
So far there's no returned message. If I DO receive one, I'll update this post.
I received a similar text, I responded to the text by making the call. The customer service representative was extremely attentive on assisting me with completing my application.