Employment fraud has professionalised. Scammers clone company career pages, register lookalike domains, run interviews on real messaging platforms and send offer letters with correct logos. The old advice — “look for bad spelling” — no longer protects anyone. What still works is a short set of structural checks, because every scam eventually needs you to send money, send documents, or move money for someone else.
The four scam models you will actually meet
1. The task or commission scam
You are asked to complete simple tasks in an app, see a small balance grow, then must “top up” to unlock withdrawals. Every top-up is lost. Legitimate employers never require deposits to receive earnings.
2. Overpayment and money-mule fraud
A cheque or transfer arrives for more than agreed, and you are asked to forward the difference or buy equipment from a specified vendor. The original payment reverses days later; the money you forwarded is gone, and you may face criminal liability for processing it.
3. Identity-harvesting fake onboarding
You are “hired” quickly, then asked for a passport scan, national ID, bank details and a selfie holding your ID before any contract or verifiable employer contact. The output is identity theft, not employment.
4. Fee-charging fake recruiters
Charges for placement, training, certification, visa processing or background checks. Legitimate employers pay their own hiring costs.
Twelve red flags, in order of reliability
- Any request for money, in any form, at any stage.
- Interview conducted entirely by chat, with no video and no phone.
- Email from a free mail provider or a domain registered recently.
- An offer made without a real interview or a technical assessment.
- Pay described as far above market for minimal skill.
- Pressure to decide within hours, or to keep the offer confidential.
- Requests for bank credentials, one-time passcodes or crypto wallet access.
- Equipment to be purchased from a named vendor, with reimbursement promised.
- A contract with no legal entity name, registration number or address.
- The “recruiter” cannot be found on the company’s own site or directory.
- The job description is copy-pasted from a real listing at another company.
- You never applied for the role in the first place.
Five verification checks that take under ten minutes
- Find the job on the company’s own domain. Type the domain manually. If the role does not exist there, stop.
- Check the domain age and spelling. Lookalike domains swapping a letter or adding a hyphen are the norm.
- Verify the recruiter independently. Call the company’s published switchboard, not the number in the email.
- Check the legal entity. Search the national company register for the name on the contract.
- Search the exact offer text. Scam templates circulate widely and are usually already documented.
If you have already engaged
Stop all payments and contact your bank immediately — recovery is time-sensitive. Preserve every message and document. Report to your national consumer or cybercrime authority; in the United States, that is the FTC’s fraud reporting portal. If you shared identity documents, place a credit freeze or fraud alert where available and monitor for accounts opened in your name.
Frequently asked questions
Are all upfront training fees fraudulent?
Training you buy voluntarily is a purchase. Training you must buy to be hired is a fee, and legitimate employers do not charge it.
Can a scam appear on a well-known job board?
Yes. Boards remove fraudulent postings reactively; verification remains your responsibility.
Is a signed offer letter proof?
No. Documents are trivially forged. A verifiable legal entity and a video conversation with an identifiable employee are stronger evidence.