How to Spot a Fake Job Posting or Job Scam

According to the Federal Trade Commission, scammers advertise jobs the same way honest employers do: online, on job sites and social media, in newspapers, and sometimes on TV and radio. They promise a job, but what they really want is your money or your personal information. When you’re new to job hunting, it can be hard to tell what’s normal. Knowing what a real hiring process looks like is your best protection.

What a real hiring process looks like

1. You apply, using the method the employer gives.
2. If they’re interested, they contact you and set up an interview (in person, by phone or by video).
3. They make you an offer, usually with the pay, schedule and start date.
4. After you’re hired, you fill out paperwork, such as tax forms and the federal Form I-9, and show documents that prove your identity and that you’re allowed to work. That’s when an employer needs your Social Security number.
5. They pay you for the work you do.

A real employer pays you. You don’t pay them.

Red flags

Any one of these is a reason to stop and check before you go further:

• You’re asked to pay for an application, training, a starter kit, equipment, a certification or a “job guarantee.” The FTC says honest employers won’t ask you to pay to get a job.
• You’re sent a check and told to deposit it and send part of the money somewhere else, or to buy gift cards with it.
• The job is receiving packages or money and sending them on to someone else.
• The pay is way out of line with the work, like thousands of dollars a month for a few hours of easy work from home.
• You’re “hired” without a real interview, or everything happens over text or a messaging app.
• You’re pressured to decide or act fast, before you’ve had time to check anything.
• You’re asked for your Social Security number, bank account or a photo of your ID before you’ve been offered the job.
• The details don’t add up: a vague job description, an email from a personal account, or a website address that’s slightly different from the real organization’s.

Common job scams

Unexpected job offers by text or chat app

A text, WhatsApp or Telegram message offers you a remote job you never applied for, often with a pay rate but no real description of the work, and asks you to reply to learn more. The FTC says unexpected job texts like these are probably scams from fake recruiters posing as real, well-known companies, and they can lead to fake check or task scams. Don’t reply (not even with “YES”), and don’t tap the links. If you want to know whether a company is really hiring, find its official careers page yourself.

Task scams

A “job” pays you to do simple, repetitive tasks in an app, like rating products, “boosting” apps or liking videos, and shows your earnings climbing. You might even be paid a few dollars at first. Then you’re told to deposit your own money, often in cryptocurrency, to unlock the next set of tasks or to withdraw what you’ve “earned,” and that money is gone. Reports of these scams to the FTC jumped from about 5,000 in 2023 to about 20,000 in just the first half of 2024. A real job never asks you to pay to keep working or to get your pay.

Jobs that ask you to move money

Some fake jobs, often called “payment processing” or “funds transfer” roles, ask you to receive money in your bank account or payment app and send it on by wire, app, gift cards or cryptocurrency, keeping a small cut. The FBI calls people recruited this way money mules, and the money usually comes from other scam victims. Moving it can leave you owing your bank or get your accounts closed, and the FBI says people who move it can face criminal charges even if they didn’t realize it was a crime. If a job involves moving money for someone you’ve never met, don’t do it.

Fake check scams

You’re “hired” as a mystery shopper, personal assistant, caregiver or similar, and your new “employer” sends a check. They ask you to deposit it, keep part as pay and send the rest to someone else or buy gift cards. Banks have to make deposited money available quickly, but it can take weeks to discover that a check is fake. When it bounces, the bank will expect you to repay the full amount, and the money you sent is gone.

Reshipping and reselling

Ads for “quality control” or “virtual assistant” roles turn out to mean receiving packages at home, removing the original labels and receipts, and shipping the items to an address you’re given, often overseas. The FTC says reshipping goods is never a real job; the products are often bought with stolen credit cards, and the promised paycheck usually never arrives. A related scam asks you to buy brand-name products to resell, and the products never come or turn out to be junk.

Work-from-home and “be your own boss” offers

Promises of big money for little time or effort usually end with you paying for a starter kit, training or certification that’s useless. The FTC says that if someone claims you can make a lot of money in a short time with little work, it’s almost certainly a scam.

Mystery shopping

Some mystery shopping jobs are real, but honest companies won’t ask you to pay for certifications, job directories or guarantees. If they want you to deposit a check and send money back, it’s a fake check scam.

Job placement fees

Legitimate staffing and placement firms are usually paid by the employer, not the job seeker. If a placement service asks you for a fee, especially in advance, walk away.

Government and postal jobs

Information about federal and U.S. Postal Service jobs is free, and applying is always free. Use USAJOBS.gov for federal jobs, and never pay anyone who promises to get you one.

Not every dead end is a scam

Job hunting comes with frustrations that aren’t fraud. A posting can stay up after the job is filled, an employer may collect applications for openings that come later, or you may apply and never hear back. People sometimes call listings like these “ghost jobs.” They can waste your time, but they aren’t the same as a scam: a ghost job doesn’t ask you for money, bank details or your Social Security number, and it doesn’t ask you to move money or packages.

An unfamiliar step isn’t a red flag by itself, either. Group interviews, skills tests, video interviews and online applications are all common. What matters is whether someone wants something from you that a real employer wouldn’t ask for before hiring you.

How to check out an employer

• Search the name of the company or the person hiring you, plus words like “scam,” “review” or “complaint.” No results doesn’t prove a company is honest, but complaints are a warning.
• Find the organization yourself. Look up its official website or phone number instead of using links or numbers in a message you weren’t expecting. Check that the job is on the organization’s own careers page, or call and ask.
• Look closely at email and web addresses. Messages from a free email account, or a site whose name is one letter off from the real one, deserve extra caution.
• Talk to someone you trust. Describing the offer to a parent, teacher, counselor or friend gives you a second opinion and time to think.

On Fun First Jobs, jobs must pass our verification and safety checks before they can appear, and jobs or employers that raise a concern are held for review by our team. A “Verified employer” label means we confirmed the organization controls, or is reasonably associated with, its listed website or contact information. It’s not a background check, an endorsement or a guarantee. Our checks lower the risk, but no screening process catches everything, so we can’t promise that every employer or job is legitimate or safe. The steps above still matter on any job site, including this one. Each job page also shows where the Apply button will take you. Here’s how our checks work.

Protect your information

• Share only what you need to apply: how to reach you, your availability and your experience.
• Wait to share your Social Security number, bank details and identity documents until you’ve been hired, and then only through the employer’s official onboarding.
• Never send money or gift cards to get a job, and never share passwords or sign-in codes.

What to do, and where to report it

If an offer worries you, or you think you’ve been scammed, you don’t have to sort it out alone. Telling a parent, teacher or another adult you trust is a good first step.

If you sent money or information

1. Stop. Don’t send more money or information, and stop replying.
2. If you paid, contact the company you used to send the money right away (your bank, card company, payment app, wire transfer service or gift card company), report the fraud and ask whether the payment can be reversed.
3. If you moved money for someone, stop and tell your bank or payment service what happened.
4. If you shared personal information like your Social Security number, go to IdentityTheft.gov to report it and get a recovery plan.

Where to report it

• The FTC: ReportFraud.ftc.gov. You can also report to your state attorney general, which is a good option if the FTC site isn’t taking reports when you visit.
• The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center: IC3.gov, for scams that happened online. Include any payment details you have. IC3 won’t contact you or send updates, so save or print a copy of your complaint when you file it.
• Scam texts: forward them to 7726 (SPAM), or use your messaging app’s option to report junk.
• The job site: on Fun First Jobs, use the “Report this job” link on the job’s page, and our team will review it. On other sites, use their reporting tool.

Scams change over time. This guide reflects the FTC’s guidance as of the date it was last reviewed. For the latest, see the FTC’s job scams page, and read our job safety page for how reporting works on Fun First Jobs.