Avoiding Job Scams

A job search already takes enough out of you. The last thing you need is to lose money, time, or your personal information to someone running a scam. This page covers the ones that show up most often and how to spot them before they cost you anything.

The one rule that catches most of them

You should never have to pay to get a job. Not for an application, not for training you are told is required before you can start, and not for equipment you have to buy from a specific vendor. Real employers and real recruiters do not charge you to hire you. If money has to move from you to them before you are hired, stop there.

Apply on the company's own site when you can

Job boards are good for finding openings. They are not always the best place to actually apply. Whenever you can, find the same role on the company's own careers page and apply there. You confirm the job is real and still open, you see the original description instead of a rewritten one, and you keep your information out of the hands of a middleman you did not choose. If you cannot find the posting anywhere on the company's site, treat that as a reason to slow down. It may have closed, or it may never have been real in the first place.

How to tell a real recruiter from a fake one

This site lists a lot of recruiters, staffing firms, and search firms, so it is worth being clear about how the legitimate ones work. A real recruiter is paid by the employer, not by you. They will want to talk about roles, your background, and whether you are a fit. They will not ask you for money, for gift cards, or for your bank account, Social Security number, or a copy of your ID in a first message. Be careful when someone who contacted you out of nowhere wants to move onto a personal texting or chat app right away, pushes you to decide fast, or offers you a job with almost no interview. Those are the patterns worth stepping back from.

The scams that come up most

• The check or overpayment scam. You are "hired," sent a check to buy equipment or to deposit, and told to send part of it back. The check bounces days later and you are out the money you already forwarded. No legitimate job works this way.
• The fake offer built to collect your data. There is no real job. The point is to get your Social Security number, bank details, or a scan of your ID through onboarding paperwork. Do not hand any of that over until you have verified the employer and confirmed the offer is real.
• The equipment or vendor scam. You are told to buy your laptop, software, or a starter kit from one specific vendor and get reimbursed after you start. The reimbursement never comes.
• The reshipping or money-transfer role. You receive packages or payments and forward them on. That is not a job. It is you moving stolen goods or money for someone else.

How to check who you are dealing with

A few minutes of checking clears up most of this. Look up the company on your own instead of trusting a link you were sent. Compare the recruiter's email domain to the company's real one, since a free email address for a corporate role is a flag. Search the company name together with the word scam and see what comes back. If an offer feels off, it is completely fair to ask for a call, a real job description, and the name and title of the person you are talking to. Anyone legitimate will give you those without a fuss.

If you have been targeted or scammed

Report it. It helps you, and it helps the next person who gets the same message.

• The FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov
• The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov
• Your state attorney general's office
• The platform where you saw the posting, so they can take it down

If you gave up bank or card details, contact your bank right away. If you shared your Social Security number, consider placing a credit freeze with the three major credit bureaus.

None of this should scare you off using recruiters or job boards. The good ones are worth your time, and most of what you run into is legitimate. Knowing the handful of patterns above just means the bad ones cannot catch you off guard.