Is That Remote Job Real? How to Spot Work From Home Job Scams

It’s 11 PM in your third month of unemployment, and you receive yet another “We’re hiring urgently!” text. This one promises $75 an hour for data entry—no experience needed, start tomorrow. That knot in your stomach? Not excitement. It’s your instincts trying to save you from joining the 20,000 people who reported job scams in just the first half of 2024.

Think you’d never fall for a job scam? Even careful professionals can be vulnerable to job board-induced brain rot. Sometimes, you want to believe. Scammers count on that feeling—and they’re getting scary good at exploiting it.

Why do smart people fall for remote job scams?

Most scammers aren’t just targeting desperate job seekers or tech novices. Clever scammers hook even experienced professionals with graduate degrees and decades of experience.

“More sophisticated attackers may even target people individually,” says Nick Kowalczyk, Vice President and Chief Risk, Compliance, and Privacy Officer at Kelly, who tracks recruitment fraud daily. “Plus, artificial intelligence helps the worst-performing scammers. It cleans up their typos and gets it looking like any other job posting you see. That has really raised the floor.” 

The dream of full-time remote work is another way scammers get their hooks into educated job-seekers. A BBB survey found one of the biggest reasons people fall for these scams is believing they’ve finally found a perfect work-from-home role. 

Job posting red flags

Some warning signs should be instant deal-breakers. Train yourself to see these blaring alarms:

• They want money. Any money. “You should never have to pay for anything, from a recruitment-process perspective,” says Kowalczyk. Real employers pay for everything, from background checks to training and equipment.
• The pay sounds like a fever dream. $250 to $500 a day for an easy-peasy task? If it sounds like a 3 AM too-good-to-be-true infomercial, it is. 
• They want your passwords. No legit company needs your Gmail password to consider your application. Or your Facebook password, or your LinkedIn password. Any password requests should be a hard no. 

How job scams actually work

Understanding the playbook helps you spot the con early, especially since most follow the same script. 

• The surprise contact. A text claiming they found your resume (…but can’t explain how). A Facebook message about an “exclusive opening.” Professional recruiters use LinkedIn and email, not Instagram DMs. 

• The pressure. “Creating a sense of urgency is a common tactic,” says Kowalczyk. “They’ll claim there are only 12 openings left.” One real example: A Wisconsin job-seeker was offered $35.75 per hour for data entry. The company sent checks for more than $16,000 so she could buy “home office equipment,” and then pressured her to deposit the checks within minutes. When the job-seeker called the actual company, they’d never heard of the job.

• The money flip. The finale almost always involves your money going the wrong direction, although there are a few different methods. Cashing their checks and sending back the “extras” is one common tactic, although they may ask you to buy gift cards or pay for training (that obviously doesn’t exist).

Cheat sheet: Real job vs. scam job

The interview

The communication

Five-minute job scam verification checklist

1. 1. Check the domain the email is sent from. For instance, @kellyservices.com is real. @kellyservices1.com is a scam. @amaz0n.jobs is definitely a scam.
   2. Search independently. Never click their links. Instead, go to the company’s actual website. No job listing? Probably no job.
   3. Google “[company] + scam”. The FTC recommends this simple search, which takes 30 seconds and will let you know if this is a common scam.
   4. Contact the company directly. Find their real number on their website, or the email of their head of HR. Ask bluntly, “Does [recruiter name] work there?” Real companies will be happy to confirm.
   5. Check LinkedIn. Real recruiters have profiles with actual work histories, not accounts created last Tuesday. 

Questions that make job scammers disappear

Want to watch a fake recruiter vanish? Ask:

• “What’s the exact company name and team?” Vagueness equals a scam.

• “Who’s the hiring manager?” They can’t produce one. 

• “Can we do a video call?” Cameras are rarely “broken” at real companies.

What to do if you already shared your information

If you’re already deep in a WhatsApp conversation with a recruiter who you just realized is a “scammer,” start by not blaming yourself. Scammers are clever, especially when augmented with AI. Falling for their schtick isn’t a knock on you personally.

Once you’ve taken a deep breath, move fast. Start with money protection:

1. Call your bank NOW and freeze your accounts and credit card numbers.
2. Alert your bank about any fake checks that you may have deposited.

Then, protect your identity:

1. Freeze your credit with the major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax).
2. Change all of your passwords immediately.
3. Set up fraud alerts for your bank accounts and credit cards.

Last up—make reports. While this doesn’t necessarily mean authorities will stop your scammer from preying on others, it creates a paper trail and can help get your own money back.

1. Get screen shots of all of your communications with the scammer.
2. Start by reporting job fraud to the FTC.
3. Make a police report if you lost money.

How working with a staffing agency helps avoid scams

When you’re navigating remote job searching alone at midnight, you wind up handling all the scammer detective work yourself. That’s exhausting—and risky.

This is where staffing agencies like Kelly change the game. We talk to companies daily. We’ve verified their domains, know their HR teams, and have already done the sniff test. Working with a Kelly recruiter means receiving only vetted opportunities and avoiding the scams.

The rule: Legitimate staffing agencies never ask for money upfront. If anyone claiming to be from Kelly or any other staffing agency asks for money, they’re lying. 

Your action plan

“Keep your guard up,” says Kowalczyk. “But don’t let that stop you from growing your career. Just take a few seconds to verify each job posting.” 

Run new opportunities by a trusted friend. Sometimes saying it out loud—So, they asked me to buy gift cards…—is all it takes to realize you’ve been had. 

“This is a volume play for scammers,” says Kowalczyk. They reach out to thousands of people hoping only a handful will bite. Your objective: Don’t be their volume.

Ready to skip the scamxiety? Connect with a Kelly recruiter who’s already verified the companies, knows who is actually hiring, and will video call you with their camera on. No fees or fake checks required. 

Start your job search with a team who knows the difference.

For more information on spotting and reporting job scams, please visit our Job Scam Protection page.