Job seekers are targeted precisely because they are hopeful, responsive and often under pressure. Being taken in is not a sign of carelessness. Here is what recruitment fraud looks like and what to do about it.
The single rule that catches almost everything: a real employer never asks a candidate for money, and never asks for bank details before you have accepted a written offer. Not for training, not for equipment, not for a visa, not for a background check, not for a "refundable" deposit. If money is requested in any form, it is a scam. Stop there.
Warning signs
A job offer you never applied for, especially one that arrives by text or a messaging app.
The pay is conspicuously high for the work described, or the description is vague about what you would actually do.
The whole process happens by chat. Interviews conducted entirely over Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal or Google Chat, with no video call and no phone number, are a strong signal.
The email domain is not the company's. A recruiter from a large firm writing from a gmail.com, outlook.com or lookalike domain is not that recruiter. Check the spelling carefully: a single swapped character is the standard trick.
Extreme urgency. Pressure to accept today, sign now, or lose the role is a manipulation technique, not a hiring practice.
Personal or financial details demanded early. Bank account, national insurance or social security number, passport scan or a copy of your driving licence, requested before a written offer.
A cheque or transfer you are asked to forward, or to buy equipment and be reimbursed. This is money laundering, the funds are stolen, and you are left liable.
An offer with no interview at all. Nobody hires for a professional role sight unseen.
How to check
Find the company yourself. Do not use the links in the message. Search for the company, go to its own careers page, and see whether the role exists there.
Call the company's published switchboard and ask whether the person exists and whether they are recruiting. Legitimate employers do not mind this.
Check the recruiter's professional profile for history and connections. A profile created weeks ago with no history is a warning.
Read the email headers if you can. Look at the actual sending domain, not the display name, which anyone can set to anything.
Slow down. Urgency is the tool being used against you. Nothing legitimate is lost by taking a day.
What we will never do
We will never ask a job seeker for payment, for any reason.
We will never ask for your bank details, card number, national insurance or social security number.
We do not receive your job application. Applying through a listing sends you to the employer or their applicant tracking system.
We will never email you asking for a password.
We do not conduct interviews. We are a publication and a job board, not an employer's recruiting team.
Anyone claiming otherwise while using our name is impersonating us.
If it has already happened
Stop all contact. Do not send more money to recover what you have already sent. That second approach is a common follow-on fraud.
Contact your bank immediately. Speed matters, and a payment reported quickly can sometimes be recalled.
If you sent identity documents, place a fraud alert or credit freeze with the credit agencies in your country and watch your accounts.
Tell us, at [email protected]. If a listing on our network was involved we will remove it and bar the poster. If our name was used, we want to warn other people.
Reporting it is worth doing even when you feel foolish. You are almost never the only target, and the report is what stops the next person losing money.