Blog

An employment scam is a fraudulent job offer intended to mislead a person. The scammers' goal is to get free labor, obtain the job seekers' personal information, or even trick them into sending money. These scams can come through via text, email, phone call, or even from social media, such as LinkedIn.

Job scams can look very different. Here are the top five job scams to look out for.

Remote Work Scam: These jobs entice individuals with the promise of high pay for minimal effort. A common remote work scam going around is a text message promising $100 to $500 a day for simple tasks like updating the data for a mysterious online merchant.

Fake Check Job Scam: “Employers”, aka a scammer, will send their “employee” a fake check for the equipment or training they needed before starting. The scammer will instruct the “employee” to deposit a portion of the check and either send back some funds that they “accidentally overpaid for” or forward the remaining funds to another vendor. By the time the money is sent, the check is flagged as fraudulent, and now the “employee” is on the hook for all of it.

Task-Based Job Scam: The FTC reports that task-based scams accounted for nearly 40% of job scams in 2024. In this scam, you may be asked to download an app and start completing tasks, liking videos and reviewing products. At first, all seems legitimate until you want to transfer your earnings out of the app. At this point, they’ll ask you to deposit some funds, usually in crypto, to complete the account setup. Once the money is deposited, your funds are gone, and so are the fake earnings.

Reshipping Job Scam: Reshipping scams claim to give you the flexibility of working from home on your own time. All you need to do is repackage and ship out products. Sounds nice, right? Well, not so much when you find out you’re handling products purchased with stolen credit cards and you’re now operating as a money mule. Now, not only are you not being paid, but you could face criminal charges for your role in fraud and trafficking of stolen materials.

Identity Theft Recruitment Scam: This scam primarily aims to obtain your personal information rather than for financial gain. Scammers create fraudulent applications that ask for your Social Security number, driver's license, and even bank information, all under the guise of setting up direct deposit. Once they have this information, you get ghosted, and your information is sold. Employment scams are one of the main sources of identity theft, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Verify: Then verify again. Research a company or position that you’re applying for and verify all the contact information independently.

Don’t pay: A legitimate employer will not ask you to pay for training or equipment before you start working, and be wary of any job that you have to pay money to make money.

Trust your gut: If something seems too good to be true or feels off, it probably is.