A message from a recruiter feels like good news, especially when you’re job hunting. That is exactly why scammers impersonate recruiters. They use real company names, real job titles and sometimes the names and photos of real employees, and then steer the conversation toward your money or your personal information.
The good news: fake recruiters are usually easy to catch if you check a few specific things before you reply with anything sensitive.
How fake recruiter scams usually work
Most follow a similar path:
- First contact. You get an email, text or LinkedIn message about a role you may or may not have applied for. It names a well-known company.
- A fast, informal “interview”. Often it happens entirely over text or a chat app, sometimes with a list of questions to answer in writing.
- An offer, quickly. You’re told you got the job, often with pay that is generous for the role.
- The ask. Now they need something: your Social Security number and bank details “for payroll”, photos of your ID, or money for equipment, training or a background check.
Real hiring can move quickly too, so speed alone doesn’t prove anything. What matters is who you’re actually talking to, and what they ask for.
Warning signs of a fake recruiter
The email domain is wrong
Recruiters at established companies almost always write from the company’s own domain: name@company.com. Be suspicious of:
- Free email providers such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or iCloud for a large company.
- Look-alike domains that add words or swap letters:
company-careers.com,companyjobs-hr.net,c0mpany.com.
Some small businesses and independent recruiters do use free email accounts, so this isn’t proof on its own. For a large, well-known employer, it’s a strong red flag.
They won’t talk on video or phone
A real recruiter will usually schedule a call or video interview. Someone who insists on text only, or moves you to Telegram, WhatsApp or Signal and never shows their face or voice, may be hiding who they are.
They ask for money
Reputable staffing agencies and employers are generally paid by the companies that hire, not by job seekers. Requests to pay for training, certification, software, equipment or a “processing fee” are a hallmark of a scam.
They ask for sensitive details too early
Your SSN, bank account and routing numbers, and ID photos belong in a formal onboarding process after you’ve been hired, not in a chat with someone you’ve never spoken to.
The details don’t add up
A LinkedIn profile created a few weeks ago with few connections. A job that isn’t on the company’s careers page. A job description that doesn’t match the title. Grammar and formatting that don’t match how the company normally writes. Individually these are small; together they add up.
Five ways to verify a recruiter
- Check the company’s careers page. Search for the company yourself and look for the role. If it isn’t listed, that doesn’t prove a scam, but it’s a reason to ask.
- Contact the company directly. Use the phone number or contact form on the official website, not the details in the message, and ask whether the recruiter works there and whether the role is real.
- Look up the recruiter. Search their name with the company name on LinkedIn. Real recruiters usually have a long work history, many connections and colleagues at the company.
- Check the email domain carefully. Compare it letter by letter with the company’s real website address.
- Ask for a video call. A real recruiter will agree to one. A scammer will usually find a reason not to.
If you think you’ve been contacted by a fake recruiter
- Don’t send money, ID photos or bank details.
- Stop replying, and don’t click further links or download files they send.
- Report the profile or posting to the platform (LinkedIn, the job board, or your email provider).
- Report the scam to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- If you already shared your SSN or ID, follow the recovery steps at IdentityTheft.gov. If you sent money, contact your bank immediately.
For the full list of warning signs in the posting itself, see how to tell if a job posting is fake.
Rule of thumb: verify the recruiter through the company, never through the recruiter.
FakeJobDetector checks postings and recruiter details for these warning signs, including free email addresses and mismatched domains, and shows you exactly what it found. Join the waitlist to be among the first to try it.