Recruit Arrow RecruitArrow, Recruit Arrow, Andrew Harrison Barnes, A. Harrison Barnes, Harrison Barnes, Hound, Employment Crossing, EmploymentCrossing, EmploymentAuthority, Employment Authority, Granted, BCG Attorney Search, Law Crossing scam, dishonest, misleading, shifty Pasadena California

Recruit Arrow is an employment “placement agency” that seems to be just a “front” to lure unsuspecting job seekers to affiliate web sites designed to get applicants to part with their money for more “leads” or “contact information”.   However, nobody has attempted to fully document exactly how the Recruit Arrow scam works, which I attempt here. What’s worse is that people could possibly part with their hard-earned money with the promise of job leads and “special gifts”.

How Recruit Arrow scams in 10 easy steps.

1.  A person sees a job that they are interested in posted on a legitimate job searching site. The position is handled through the placement agency “Recruit Arrow”, and there is no mention of the name of the actual organization offering the “job”.  

2.  There is an “Apply Now” button within the job profile that Recruit Arrow has posted on the legitimate site, which is clicked by the interested job applicant.

3.  Once the “Apply Now” button is clicked, you are redirected to the “Recruit Arrow” website. You then see a more detailed description of the job that you saw on the legitimate.  

4.  You have to create an account using your email address on the “Recruit Arrow” site to apply to the job. Recruit Arrow now has your email address. 

5.  You waste your time with creating an account, creating a cover letter, and uploading your resume…not to mention completing your demographics for your profile.

6.  You click send, and you have “applied” to the job (or so you think).

7.  You receive a confirmation and “thank you for applying” email shortly after “applying” to the job. Below is a cut-and-paste of the actual email I received.  The text of the email will read something like this:

“Thank you for taking the time to contact Recruit Arrow. At the outset, I want to let you know that I believe your credentials are very strong. Part of my job as a search consultant at Recruit Arrow is to take the time to better understand your background. I will review the information you submitted and contact you shortly. There is no need to resubmit additional resumes or candidate profiles in response to advertised positions. The profile you created will be automatically reviewed for any and all positions that match your interests by the search consultant in charge of the search. I am looking forward to working with you.”

Notice how the email NEVER mentions the title of the job for which you applied.  Well, that's because your application and resume are NEVER reviewed by ANYONE.  This is just a stock email to make you think that Recruit Arrow is looking over your application.

8.  Within 24 hours you receive another email from Recruit Arrow.   It seems that Recruit Arrow makes sure its auto-reply program allows enough time to pass to make you think they actually reviewed your application.  Try it for yourself.  I created some fake accounts on Recruit Arrow, some of which I simply typed gobblygook in to the resume field.  Each time, I received the same email.

These emails always state that sender will be unable to help you. But, since the sender is sooo nice, he tells you that the job you applied to is listed on other sites. These alleged “postings” on other sites are said to have the direct contact information for the company offering the job you “applied” to. But the email never mentions the job you applied for nor does the sender state the contact information of the company. I mean if he is going to go through all the trouble of helping you out, why not just give you the contact information of the job in the email???  Here is a cut-and-paste of that email:

“I wanted to write you a short note to thank you again for contacting Recruit Arrow yesterday. In this tight economic environment, employers set extraordinarily high hurdles for the types of candidates they are demanding through recruiting firms. Accordingly, despite the fact that there is a possibility that you might be qualified for the positions we are recruiting for, we cannot work with every qualified candidate because our screening criteria are dictated by our clients and, in fact, are often artificially high. 

Despite the high criteria employers set for candidates coming through recruiting firms (due to the fact that recruiting firms charge fees), these same employers might hire you were you to apply on your own. In fact, in order to help our clients during tough economic times from time to time we refer candidates we believe may be qualified for certain positions to approach our clients on their own. 

I wanted to advise you that Hound.com contains the position with Recruit Arrow you expressed interest in because it has not been filled yet. Hound.com contains virtually every job directly from employers in the United States and most of the same jobs we recruit for. I hope this helps. 

I want you to know that we greatly appreciate you applying to work with Recruit Arrow. I am greatly hoping we can be of assistance to you later in your career in a better economic climate. “

I received that same email MULTIPLE times, one for each fake account I created with Recruit Arrow.  So, you know that it is not an isolated incident. There was ABSOLUTELY NO REVIEW OF RESUMES in each case of a fake account.

9.  The stock email never mentions a job title or job category. But since he/she is in the recruiting business, they have the contact information of the company, and he/she advises you to apply directly with the company. Now why would they post the ad for a job on a legitimate site in the first place? Are the job postings even real?  I actually found the same positions that Recruit Arrow was advertising on two legitimate sites.  The jobs were quite old as well and were perhaps even filled already.  However, the contact information for the company was provided. There was no "blind" application process as Recruit Arrow had.

So, it appears that “Recruit Arrow” may not even have ANY relationship with employers it claims to have.  Think about it. Why would an employer pay to have their ad on Recruit Arrow when they are already posting it on legitimate sites?  I have already demonstrated that Recruit Arrow does not even look at your resume.  And, do you think employers WOULD ACTUALLY PAY Recruit Arrow money for them to turn around and then “give” the applicant the contact information so they could apply directly?  Don’t employers hire recruiting agencies so they don’t have to sort through applicant files in the first place????  What is going on here is that Recruit Arrow trolls job sites to obtain legitimate job postings. Recruit Arrow then simply reproduces the ad, directing the applicant to the Recruit Arrow site.

10. Now, in order for the applicant to obtain the contact information for the job they applied to on the Recruit Arrow site, they have to go to another site.  A link is provided. The site could be “Hound” or “Employment Authority” or one of several other sites affiliated with Recruit Arrow. Once you visit “Hound” or whatever site name that was provided to you, you have to pay a fee in order to see the “job”. There will be some BS, bogus, “bait” jobs listed to make the site seem legit. But, you will never find the job you originally applied to without paying. And these sites are all “affiliated” with “Recruit Arrow”. Recruit Arrow and these sites are operated by the SAME people. The other site names include: Granted, Employment Crossing, Employment Authority, Hound, etc.

Next comes the spam to promote the different wares and “opportunities”. The people that “send” these emails are possibly not even living individuals working for Recruit Arrow or any of its affiliates, just fabricated names to further fool consumers.

“I’m writing to inform you about Recruit Arrow’s affiliate company that will provide you direct access to the “hidden job market” in the current economic downturn — Hound. Hound is a job search engine, featuring one million job listings directly from employer websites (which are the least advertised source for job openings). While the number of jobs available nationwide is declining on a daily basis, there are still great opportunities if you know where to look. Finding you those opportunities is all that Hound does. Hound Shows You Only Employer Jobs There are thousands of new openings listed every day on the career pages of employer websites. Many of these are not advertised on top job boards like Monster, Indeed, Simply Hired, and TheLadders simply because many employers did not pay to post these jobs. Thus, these jobs typically receive far fewer applications. Hound, however, allows you to apply to all these “hidden jobs.”Hound Hunts Down Jobs That Others Do Not Know About Hound has invested millions of dollars in developing an innovative search engine that crawls through each and every employer’s career page and lists all those jobs in its search results. This innovative approach makes all the difference. And, you can apply for thousands of job openings at Hound for FREE for three days! All you have to do is click here, complete your sign–up, and start applying. Check out how Hound is different than and better than the usual job boards.”

After the above email was sent, I received an email from Hound.  By placing your email in the Recruit Arrow site when you completed your “application”, you are now getting emails from other sites that are affiliated with Recruit Arrow...the real "money makers".   Here’s the text of a Hound email:

“Seeker, 

I am not sure if you received my previous message, but this is my last attempt to contact you. I have been authorized to provide you $199 in special gifts if you activate your Free Hound Trial today. 

My records show that you tried to activate a Free Trial to Hound yesterday but for some reason were unable to complete the process. 

The email address you entered was: [redacted] 
You tried to activate your trial on: [redacted]

Did you have a problem with our system? 

There are two ways you can get IMMEDIATE help with your Trial activation: 

1. Use this special link I created for you to visit a ONE-page, QUICK AND EASY SIGN UP FORM: (you will be able to continue your activation right where you left off):[redacted]
2. Call me personally on my direct line at [redacted], or call our offices at [redacted] and I can help you too.

I recommend you activate your free trial because (a) it will cost you nothing, (b) I have been authorized to give you almost $199 in complimentary gifts for trying us today and (c) you will have instant access to one of the largest collections of jobs not found on other job boards-no one has anywhere near as many jobs pulled directly from employer career pages that match your background as Hound does.”

Hound promises “special gifts” if you just sign up for the services of…just so you can allegedly get that contact information for a job that Recruit Arrow already promised to give you…for FREE in one of the emails.  Remember, most, if not all, jobs Recruit Arrow posts are not a result of an exclusive relationship with any employer.  Recruit Arrow finds job postings on legitimate sites and then reposts them verbatim on the Recruit Arrow site to bait applicants.

For the record, I NEVER attempted to “activate” anything at any time with Hound, so that claim in the email is patently false.  Also, ask yourself why the Recruit Arrow Facebook page has only 3 “likes” when the page is 2 years old?? I mean if Recruit Arrow is helping so many thousands of job seekers, you would think that people would like the page...but maybe that's just me.

But, do your own research. See what others say about Recruit Arrow by performing some simple search engine queries.  Call the number of record for Recruit Arrow.  You will likely receive an answering machine every time you call.  The message answers as “BCG Attorney Search”.  Conveniently, there is already a plethora of information on “BCG Attorney Search” here on RipOff Report.