How to know if a job opportunity is a scam

Scammers target anyone they think will fall for their scam. How do they know who to target? They go after people’s vulnerabilities. They target older people with the grandparent scam. (“Help, Grandpa, I’m in an overseas jail, and I need money now!”) They target people in debt with get-out-of-debt scams. And they target people in need of paying work with fake job scams.

Nothing strikes at our sense of security more than worrying about where our next paycheck will come from. When you’re looking for work, you ride a rollercoaster—getting your hopes up and having them dashed. Scammers count on these vulnerabilities and see job seekers as easy targets for their scams.

Sadly, there’s no shortage of job scams. In fact, in 2023 alone the Federal Trade Commission logged more than 100,000 complaints of business and job opportunity scams, costing scam victims nearly $500,000 in total.

Job scammers are typically after one of two things from you—money and information.

In some cases, a job scammer will offer an opportunity that requires candidates to pay for their “help” in landing an interview. In others, scammers offer work-from-home jobs and ask for money for equipment setup or registration. Some scammers even ask for banking or other sensitive data to process your application.

To avoid any type of scam, follow the age-old wisdom: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Job hunting scams often have several red flags. If you come across any of these, you’re probably looking at a scam:

• You’re being offered a lot of money for very little work
• There’s a lot of pressure to respond quickly, and you might get multiple messages in a short amount of time. For example, “Did you receive my message?” or “Why haven’t you responded?”
• Something about the communication seems off. Trust your gut. If you get a bad feeling, proceed with caution.
• The job descriptions are poorly written or confusing
• You’re being asked to provide sensitive information like your social security number or banking information
• You’re being asked to pay a fee for their assistance in getting you an interview—legitimate recruiters won’t ask you to pay for their services
• The recruiter won’t answer basic questions you have about the opportunity

Joseph, a university talent agent with Fidelity, says his number one red flag is “if they won’t tell you who they are, or what the job is.”

Job scams can be found on job boards and professional platforms, sitting and waiting for eager job seekers to respond and fall into their trap. LinkedIn alone has flagged and removed over 100 million accounts each year since 2020 as “spam and scams.”

Scams can also be more targeted. Scammers reach out via email, messaging, and text. Both public postings and private messages can cause job seekers heartache and financial problems. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from both.

Simple things you can do to protect yourself from employment scams:

• Don’t give in to pressure to share sensitive financial or personal information
• Look at profiles for the individual job poster and the company
• Don’t pay for materials, application fees, or recruiter services

Fidelity recruiters advise confirming job opportunities via the employer website. Jenna, a senior university talent acquisition leader says, “If you see a job opening and it’s attractive to you, I always recommend going to the actual employer website and checking that it is a legit job posting.”

Joseph agrees. “Go to the company’s career website and find that posting. Every company, I don’t care if they have a third-party recruiter, they’ll have that role posted on their website. That’s another good way to see if it’s real or not.”

Joseph also advises looking at the recruiter’s social media accounts. He says, “I’d look at that account. Does it look brand new? Do they have followers? Who are they following? What do their posts look like? Are there work-related posts with some kind of work-related hashtag? If they are using any social media in an official recruiting capacity, it should be fairly obvious.”

Joseph reiterates, “No recruiter is ever going to ask you for your social security [number or] your bank details. No recruiter’s going to ask you to pay for anything, either.” The most they will ask for is a resume or preferred contact number.

Job scams work, in part, because they model themselves on legitimate recruiting strategies. Legitimate job postings appear on job boards, just as job scams do. Legitimate recruiters also reach out to candidates via email, text, and private messaging on social media platforms—just as scammers do. The difference is that legitimate recruiters will make every effort to be transparent and easily identifiable to potential candidates.

Joseph says that Fidelity recruiters use #fidelityassociate to identify themselves on social media platforms. Recruiters will typically have a steady stream of career-related posts in their social media history—upcoming job fairs, opportunities, tips for interviewing well, etc. Their social media profiles will also clearly identify them as a recruiter or talent acquisition representative. When legitimate recruiters reach out to potential candidates, they readily share job descriptions and answer questions.

With job scams on the rise, proceed with caution during your job search. Keep an eye out for red flags and verify any too-good-to-be-true offers against company websites.