Job scams stopped being a fringe problem. The FTC says reported losses climbed from about $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024, with the number of reports roughly tripling over the same stretch. Part of that is simply more scammers; part of it is better scams. AI now writes recruiter messages that are fluent, personalized, and free of the typos that used to give the game away β so the old "watch for bad grammar" advice quietly stopped working.
Which is why a checklist of warning signs only gets you so far. A convincing fake can clear every "is the grammar good, is there a logo" test you throw at it. What it can't easily survive is being independently verified. The five checks below don't ask you to judge how the message feels β they ask you to confirm, from outside the message, that the company and the person are who they claim to be. Run them in order and stop the moment the offer fails one.
The five checks
Read the address it came from, not the name
The sender name is free text β anyone can type "Google Talent Acquisition" or a real recruiter's name into it. What matters is the domain after the @. A genuine corporate recruiter writes from the company's own domain (jane@company.com), not gmail.com, outlook.com, or a near-miss like careers-company-hr.com. Same rule for where they push you: a legitimate hiring process doesn't move to WhatsApp or Telegram in the first message. The FTC flags exactly that β an unsolicited offer that jumps straight to a messaging app is one of the most consistent markers of a fake.
Reverse image search the photo and the logo
Scam recruiters reuse stock headshots and stolen profile pictures. Save the recruiter's photo (or the 'company' logo) and run it through a reverse image search. If the same face turns up as a stock model, or attached to three different names, you're done. If a logo is pulled from a brand that has nothing to do with the email, that's your answer too. You can drop the image straight into FAXTR's search to start that trace.
Verify the company and the person β separately, your own way
Don't use any link, number, or LinkedIn profile they sent you; a scammer controls all of those. Open a new tab, type the company's real website yourself, and look for the role on its own careers page. Search the recruiter's name together with the company. A real recruiter usually has a findable track record β a company-page profile, past postings, a history that predates this one message. A name that returns nothing, or a LinkedIn profile created last month with a handful of connections, shifts the burden of proof onto them.
Weigh how it found you and what it actually asks
Unsolicited, high pay, low effort, vague on the actual work β that combination is the classic shape of a job scam. Scammers now use AI to tailor an offer so neatly to your background that it feels personal, so 'it knew my skills' is not reassurance. Ask a specific question about the role or the hiring steps: a real recruiter can answer; a scammer gets vague, deflects, or rushes you toward a decision.
Apply the money test β the one line that settles it
A real employer pays you. It never asks you to pay first β not for training, equipment, a background check, 'starter' software, or a fee to 'release' your pay. It doesn't ask you to deposit your own money (especially crypto) to 'unlock' tasks, and it doesn't send you a check to buy gear with. Requests for your Social Security number, bank login, or a photo of your ID before you've verified the company independently fall on the same side of the line. If money or credentials flow from you to them before you've confirmed they're real, stop β that request alone is usually the whole scam.
The fastest-growing kind: the "task" scam
If an "offer" involves doing small online tasks for commission, treat it as a scam until proven otherwise. This is the variant the FTC has watched explode β it went from almost nothing to a huge share of job-scam reports in just a few years. It follows a script, and once you've seen the script it's hard to unsee:
It arrives as a text or WhatsApp message about easy online work
Often with almost no specifics β just that you can earn money from your phone doing simple tasks. The FTC says task scams were close to nonexistent in 2020 and had grown into roughly 40% of all job-scam reports by 2024.
You're asked to do repetitive 'tasks' β app optimization, product boosting, liking items
The work is meaningless on purpose. Its only job is to keep you in the app and feeling productive.
You get small payouts early
A few real-looking dollars land in your account. This is the hook: it manufactures trust so the next step feels safe.
Then you're told to deposit your own money to keep earning
Usually in cryptocurrency, to 'unlock' higher-paying task sets or 'release' your balance. That money is gone, and the earnings you see on screen were never real. Crypto is the payment of choice precisely because it's hard to claw back.
No legitimate employer runs this loop. The instant you're asked to put your own money in to get your earnings out, the "job" is the fee, and the fee is the whole business.
The one habit that beats a polished fake
If you take a single thing from this guide: never verify an offer using the offer. Don't click its link, don't call its number, don't reply asking "is this real?" β the scammer wrote all three. Reach the company a way you found yourself: type its website into the browser, call the main line listed there, or message a recruiter through the company's own careers page. It takes a few minutes and it sidesteps the fake entirely, which is exactly why it works even when the message looks flawless.
If you already replied or sent money
Only chatted and shared nothing sensitive? Stop responding and block the sender β you're likely fine. If you handed over a password or a one-time code, change that password now and turn on multi-factor authentication, starting with your email and anything that reuses the same login. If you shared bank details or sent money, contact your bank or the payment provider immediately; speed matters most with wires and crypto, where the window to reverse anything is short. If you gave up your Social Security number, consider a credit freeze.
Then report it β reports are what get fake listings and sending accounts shut down before the next person bites. In the US, file with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, if money was lost, with the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov; outside the US, use your national cybercrime or consumer-protection authority, and flag the fake posting to the job board it appeared on. If the approach reached you as a text or through a cloned voice, the same instincts apply β our guides on scam text messages, fake LinkedIn profiles, and reverse image search pick up where this one leaves off.
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