LinkedIn recruiter scams: spot a fake recruiter

How fake recruiter scams work

• The fake check. You’re “hired”, sent a check for home-office equipment and told to pay a vendor. The check bounces after you’ve paid.
• Training or software fees. The job is yours once you pay for a course, a certification or a laptop from their supplier.
• Identity theft. Onboarding forms ask for your Social Security number, bank details and a photo of your ID before any offer letter.
• Task jobs. Easy money for liking videos or rating products, until you’re asked to pay in to unlock earnings. See WhatsApp scams.
• Impersonation. A profile copies a real recruiter at a well-known company, name and all, with a new photo or email.

How to tell if a recruiter is fake

• They message you first with a job you didn’t apply for, at pay that’s far above the role.
• The interview is a text chat on Telegram, WhatsApp or Signal, never a call or video.
• They email from a free address (Gmail, Outlook) or a domain that’s close to, but not, the company’s.
• The offer comes within a day, with no one from the team you’d work with.
• They need money, gift cards or crypto from you at any point.
• Their LinkedIn profile is new, has few connections, or the work history doesn’t match the company’s own staff pages.

How to check a recruiter

1. Open their LinkedIn profile and look at “About this profile”: when it was created and whether a workplace or ID is verified.
2. Find the job on the company’s own careers page. If it isn’t there, ask the company directly.
3. Contact the company through the phone number or email on its official website, not the one the recruiter gave you, and ask if the person works there.
4. Search the recruiter’s profile photo to see whether it belongs to someone else.
5. Ask for a video call. A real recruiter will have one; a scammer usually finds a reason not to.

What a real job offer looks like

• At least one live interview, usually with the hiring manager.
• A written offer from a company email address before any onboarding forms.
• Tax and bank details collected through the employer’s HR or payroll system after you accept.
• Equipment shipped to you by the company, never bought by you with their check.

A real employer never asks you to pay to get a job or to start one.

What to do if you were targeted

1. Stop replying, and don’t deposit any check or forward any money.
2. If you shared bank details, call your bank. If you shared your SSN, freeze your credit and report it at identitytheft.gov.
3. Report the profile on LinkedIn from the More menu on their profile, and tell the company being impersonated.
4. In the US, report the scam at reportfraud.ftc.gov and, for losses, at ic3.gov.