“Lot of times we find that the government both isn’t great at branding, and then they aren’t great at protecting their brand the same way a lot of the corporations are.”

“They might make thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars just getting people to go off as keywords,” Eric Foster, a vice president at Stairwell, told FedScoop. Researchers at Stairwell, a cybersecurity firm, didn’t find any overt malicious behavior and noted that the app’s primary purpose seemed to be pulling information that’s freely available on the internet and incorporating a “tremendous amount of advertising.” The app didn’t directly claim to be affiliated with the US government, but took intentional advantage of search terms - they called it “scam-ish.” They may also create a USAJOBS profile, create or upload a resume, make their resume searchable by Federal recruiters, and apply for positions.” “Job seekers are encouraged to use the USAJOBS site to search for Federal opportunities. “The official government website for Federal job seekers is ,” the OPM spokesperson told FedScoop. Still, the existence of this and other fake apps also highlights that government agencies aren’t always tracking down platforms and websites impersonating their services.

The system, said company spokesperson Dan Jackson, violated the Play Store’s rules about misleading claims, which specifically ban apps that falsely claim affiliation with a government entity. Google ultimately took down the app after it was flagged by FedScoop. The app, which was most recently updated in June, attracted a slew of reviews complaining about it being “misleading,” as well as its advertisements, broken links, and “fake jobs.” Many users complained that the app isn’t associated with the actual USA Jobs website and that their credentials for the actual platform didn’t work. A “USA JOBS” app was downloaded more than 50,000 times on the Google Play Store, where it had a 2-star rating. The OPM spokesperson did not say how many used the original app before it was shut down.īut a fake with a similar name eventually appeared in its place. Today, a page that used to focus on mobile apps like the USA JOBS app redirects to the help center, while a link to usa.gov site touting the system now displays a “ Page Not Found” notice. The system was taken offline, a spokesperson for OPM told FedScoop, after a redesign of the regular USA JOBS website incorporated a new, mobile-first design. The app, which was designed as an extension of the official online job search site, had previously been touted as evidence of the Obama administration’s push to adopt a path-breaking digital government strategy.

Back in May 2015, the US Office of Personnel Management - the agency in charge of coordinating the recruitment of federal employees - quietly discontinued a mobile app meant to make it easier to find and apply for government jobs.

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