I applied for a job working for a company here and today one of their HR people contacted me and asked me to send them my references. I have 2 referees listed on my CV, but they want the actual references.

Is this normal? I have never been asked to provide references until the point at which an offer is made. Certainly not before interview.

Scamp? Someone?

The recruiter asked for my references before the interview during the current recruitment process. Not sure if this is a new trend or something peculiar to the ME.

It's odd, isn't it? Athough my references are fantastic (I wrote them myself ) I am not going to send them in. If they want my references, then they can jolly well interview me first.

It seemed unusual but I think the recruiter's rationale is to screen the referees/ references to determine if the candidate is a fraud or charlatan. Present company excepted of course

I had a slightly odd experience too. In the UK we are usually given the offer first, once accepted, then asked for referees etc. For my current employer they wanted to see my refereences first before they sent me the contract. I went quite for a few days...and sure enough the contract turned up anyway. I never did give them any referees. Wouldnt have been a problem anyway but just found it very odd.

Most of the time I get people from referrals, so I have done a reference in a roundabout way already.

For the unknowns, once gone to interview and looking good I'll ask for a reference.

My old place we used to reference people that we thought would get an interview to add weight and confidence to the CV. Quite easily done in construction though;

"morning John, you know Joe who you worked with on the last job?"
"yeah"
"good or bad? I need a PM for XYZ, will he be the guy?"
"yeah, he's....blah blah blah"

Done.

I'd ask why, but then again if you want the job and are interested and have great references, why not send them in?

Recommendations in LinkedIn profile help much - copypaste and send when asked if HR can't find themselves.

We should have a BE Linkedin group...

Completely unethical if the applicant is still with their current employer, especially if that employer is one of the referees. In your case, I'm guessing that as you have recently laid an egg, you may not be in current employment - are they aware of that? It's still unusual............