Is the recruiter who they say?

A real recruiter can name the company and the role, writes from that company’s own email address and does not ask you to pay. When any of those is missing, pause, and check through the company’s own website, which you find by searching its name yourself.

The short answer. A real recruiter can name the company and the role, writes from the company's own email address and does not ask you to pay. Search for the company yourself, apply through its own website, and check who is paid, what is asked for before you are hired, and whether the pace is making you skip a check. None of this proves an offer is real, and each check is a question to put to the company.

Last reviewed 5 October 2026. Based on advice from Take Five to Stop Fraud (a United Kingdom fraud-prevention campaign), Report Fraud (the United Kingdom police reporting service), the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Federal Trade Commission and the South African Department of Employment and Labour. The questions work in any country. Rules about fees differ between countries.

Six questions to ask about any recruiter

1. Who is being paid, and for what? A recruiter’s work is paid by the employer. Take Five lists upfront fees for trial tasks, CV writing and interview coaching among the ways job fraud works, and says you should never have to pay to apply for a job. Report Fraud adds fees for visas, training, equipment and security checks.
2. Can you find the company without using the message? The Federal Bureau of Investigation advises checking a posting on the company’s own website and searching for the company name alone. It lists several websites with similar company names as a warning sign. Apply through the address you found yourself.
3. Does the message come from the company’s own email address? Report Fraud lists personal addresses such as Gmail or Yahoo among the warning signs, and Take Five says to check the email address, because real recruiters write from company addresses.
4. Does it say which company and which role? Take Five lists a contact that names no company or role, and one that says it has reviewed a CV you never sent, as warning signs.
5. What is being asked for before you are hired? The Federal Bureau of Investigation lists requests for personal information before hiring, and demands for money or card details. After a written offer, a real employer does check identity and the right to work. The questions are what is asked, in what order, and through which channel.
6. Has the pace changed what you would normally check? Take Five lists pressure to act quickly and share information. The Federal Bureau of Investigation suggests asking for a video call to confirm who the employer is.

Paying to be paid

The Federal Trade Commission describes several versions: a fee for certification, a cheque that you are asked to deposit and send part of back, and being hired to repackage and forward goods. In South Africa the Department of Employment and Labour says that being asked to pay for a job is illegal, and that its own vacancies are published free of charge on its website and other government platforms.

About the age of a web address

This section is UtilForge’s own reasoning, and the agencies above do not state it. A domain lookup service shows when a web address was registered. If a recruiter says they have worked at a company for ten years and its address was registered a few months ago, that is a question to put to the company. A recent date does not prove anything, because new businesses are real, and a long-standing business can also use a separate address for hiring.

What these questions cannot do

None of them proves that an offer is real. They give you questions to put to the company, using contact details you found yourself and not the ones in the message.

If you have already paid or shared documents

Stop replying and keep everything. Tell your bank on the number printed on your card, and report it where you live. I sent my identity to a recruiter: what now? sets out the steps in order. Cancel and Keep Proof writes the message to a card company about a payment you want to dispute.

To report: in the United Kingdom, Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040. In the United States, ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. For other countries, see Official help, country by country.

Why these checks exist

The Federal Trade Commission reported that people in the United States lost $501 million to job and employment agency fraud in 2024, up from $90 million in 2020, and that the number of reports tripled over that time. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2022 alert gave an average reported loss of nearly $3,000 per victim. These are United States figures, and we have not checked equivalent figures for other countries.

Sources

• Take Five to Stop Fraud, job scams (no date shown on the page)
• Report Fraud, recruitment scams (no date shown on the page)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center alert, 1 February 2022: fraudulent job postings
• The Federal Trade Commission consumer advice, job scams, March 2023
• The Federal Trade Commission, new data on reported fraud losses in 2024, 10 March 2025
• South African Government News Agency, Labour department warns job seekers, 27 January 2023
• The Citizen, reporting the Department of Employment and Labour, 18 February 2026

Watch: the short video

The Job Scam Situation Is Getting Worse: Here Is How to Protect YourselfUtilForge.org video. Loads from YouTube only when you press play.

Why you should never pay to get a jobUtilForge.org video. Loads from YouTube only when you press play.

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