As long as employers continue to use online job boards to hire workers, fake job offers will continue to plague passive and active job seekers. What’s more, newer generative AI tools have started doing a lot of the heavy lifting for scammers.
Between the proliferation of AI tools and the approaching fall season, now is the perfect time to study up on common fake job offers. Find out more below, including ways to guard against would-be job scammers.
Common Types of Scam Job Offers
It would be nearly impossible to list every fake job scheme hatched by scammers in the past few years. Instead, it’s useful to cover notable types of fake job offers based on broader categories.
The authors of this piece used data from the Federal Trade Commission, the Bureau of Labor & Statistics, and the Norton cybersecurity company to compose this article.
Imposter Scams
Posing as legitimate employers is one of the oldest—and, unfortunately, most lucrative—ways for scammers to target job seekers. They use brand awareness and trust to hook candidates, who are then cajoled into handing over sensitive personal information or money. Recent data from Norton shows that Amazon is the employer most often impersonated by scammers (30 percent); government agencies, including the USPS, are also commonly impersonated organizations.
As holiday hiring ramps up, scammers tailor fake job listings to match employment trends. They might create posts for warehouse, retail, and other seasonal jobs.
Repackaging and Reselling Scams
Another way scammers target job seekers is by advertising repackaging schemes. You might be instructed to receive packages at your home address and route the goods to another location, for instance. Scammers do this to put distance between themselves and items they purchase with stolen credit cards. The paycheck you were promised never comes through, and the fake employer suddenly becomes unreachable.
Reselling scams are similar; fraudsters tell victims to expect high-end goods in the mail and give them instructions for sending them off to the end recipient. Victims usually pay scammers for the “discounted” items, which often turn out to be counterfeits.
Check-Cashing and Money-Wiring Scams
The Federal Trade Commission recently advised that check-cashing scams remain popular. In these situations, the fake employer sends victims checks to cover the costs of equipment needed to carry out the job duties. Victims deposit the checks and immediately send a portion of the “money” to a third party. As it turns out, the check bounces, and the victim is on the hook for the full amount they deposited.
Closely related to check-cashing schemes are money-wiring scams. Whether or not scammers give victims fake money upfront, they will ask them to send money via a wire service, cryptocurrency, or gift cards. The fraudsters then disappear into the night.
6 Signs of a Fake Job Offer
As sophisticated as some job scams can be, many, if not most, share qualities with other fake job offers. Signs that a job posting may be involved with a scam include:
- The employer asks for money upfront, often in the form of cryptocurrency or gift cards.
- The employer doesn’t have a legitimate-looking website or readily available information about them online.
- You receive a job offer out of the blue from an unknown email address or phone number.
- The supposed employer asks for your bank account information before providing any details about the job.
- The offer sounds too good to be true or makes bold guarantees about the amount of money you’ll earn.
- The job posting itself, along with messages from the employer, contains multiple spelling or grammatical errors.
Do Certain Types of Scam Job Offers Increase During the Fall?
While the FTC and other federal agencies do not provide statistics on particular job scams and their increases during the fall, we know that retailers routinely bulk up their workforces in October, November, and December. Nationwide, employers added more than 450,000 jobs during those months in 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively.
Recent statistics also show that a solid 44 percent of Generation Z has encountered a fake job offer at least once, to go with 33 percent of the total U.S. population. Collectively, these numbers strongly suggest that job seekers should prepare for a higher likelihood of encountering a scam job posting or offer as the weather cools.
What to Do if You Encounter a Fake Job Offer
All the awareness and prevention in the world won’t stop scammers from reaching your inbox. It almost certainly will happen at least once in your life, but knowing what to do when it happens will protect your money, identity, and peace of mind.
If you encounter a fake job offer, do the following:
- Refrain from sending personal information—especially sensitive information—to scam employers.
- Never send money to someone whose identity you haven’t verified.
- Reverse search email addresses or phone numbers for strangers who unexpectedly contact you.
- Think twice before accepting a job offer from someone who hasn’t even interviewed you.
- Report suspected job scams to the FTC and your state attorney general’s office.
Keep the Holidays Happy and Scam-Free
The fall is a great time to complement your primary income stream with a seasonal side gig. Plenty of employers offer legitimate work during the holiday season, but scammers know this and often beef up their efforts, as well. Heeding the advice from experts will serve you—and your bank account—well during your job search!
