By Adam Coleman

The website used by the NSW Government to advertise public service roles has been hacked, potentially exposing the personal details of thousands of public sector job seekers.

The NSW Department of Commerce, which administers the jobs.nsw.gov.au site, is warning jobseekers not to reply to a spam email advertising a “non-existent job vacancy”.

“The Department of Commerce is aware that some users of the recruitment website, jobs.nsw received spam emails advertising a non-existent job vacancy,” the Department warns users on the now shut down site.

“The email requested the recipient reply to receive further information. The Department has been advising people who contacted them after they received the email not to reply and to delete it immediately.

“Jobs.nsw does not send emails regarding employment opportunities within the private sector and people should be wary of receiving unsolicited emails claiming to be from the site.”

The Department of Commerce is conducting an investigation into how it happened and has alerted the relevant authorities.

A Department spokesperson told the AAP: “Clearly people were sent some unauthorised emails and the safest thing for us to do in that case was to shut down the site, offer alternative arrangements for the advertising of government jobs and kick in the procedure for investigation.

"We don't know the level of sophistication we're dealing with at this stage and that is hopefully what we will find out in the next day or so."