A job posting looks real. The recruiter has a LinkedIn profile, a company name you recognize, maybe a logo in the header. The “interview” happens over text messages, moves fast, and ends with an offer before you’ve had a single phone call with an actual person. Then comes the ask: a Social Security number to “start the paperwork,” or a check to buy your own equipment before your first day. In 2025, the FTC logged more than 130,000 reports like this, totaling over $600 million in losses. This isn’t a rare scam. It’s a volume operation, and it’s running through the same job boards you use.
WHY IT WORKS ON SMART PEOPLE
Job hunting already involves talking to strangers, moving fast, and hoping for good news. Scammers built their whole approach around that. A real hiring process has friction: multiple people, a real phone call, a background check. A scam skips straight to yes, because the goal isn’t to hire you. It’s to get your information or your money before you have time to double check anything.
THE SIGNS THAT ACTUALLY MATTER
A personal email address instead of a company domain is the biggest one. The FTC’s own guidance singles this out: real recruiters email from their company’s domain, not a Gmail or Yahoo account. Any request for your Social Security number, driver’s license, or bank account details before you’ve had a real interview is another. So is a job offer that arrives unusually fast, with no interview at all, or one conducted entirely through chat with no phone or video call.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMETHING FEELS OFF
Look up the company independently, not through any link the recruiter sent you. Go to the company’s actual website and check if the job is posted there too. Search the recruiter’s name on its own. Call the company’s published phone number and ask if the person works there. None of this takes more than ten minutes, and it’s the difference between a real offer and a scam that’s already cost other job seekers over half a billion dollars this year.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Don’t send a Social Security number, bank details, or a check to yourself over chat, no matter how official the conversation feels. A real employer will never ask you to pay for your own equipment upfront and get reimbursed later. That specific setup, a check plus a request to send part of it back, is one of the most common scam structures out there.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Verify before you share anything sensitive, not after. A ten-minute check on the company’s real website and phone number costs you nothing. Skipping it is what the scam is counting on.