Stop replying and keep everything. If you gave bank details or paid, call your bank on the number on your card. Then protect your name with the identity services in your country, and report it where you live.
The short answer. Stop replying and keep everything. If you gave bank details or paid, call your bank on the number on your card. Change passwords, tell the body that issued any document, protect your name with the identity services in your country and report it where you live. This guide sets out the steps in order for the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026. Based on the United Kingdom government’s Stop Think Fraud page (29 May 2026), Report Fraud, the United States Federal Trade Commission, the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) and UtilForge’s Official help page. This is general information, not legal advice.
The steps, in order
- Stop replying, and keep what you have. Report Fraud advises stopping contact with the person. Before the advert or the profile disappears, save screenshots of the advert, the messages, the recruiter’s profile address, receipts and any documents you sent. The Check first field guide has a page to write down dates, times and reference numbers.
- If you paid or gave bank details, call your bank. Use the number printed on your card or in the bank’s own app. Ask it to hold payments that have not yet gone through, and about reversing the ones that have. Keep the reference number.
- Change passwords, starting with email, because other accounts can be reset through it, and anywhere you used the same password. The United Kingdom government page lists this step.
- Tell the body that issued any document you sent, such as a passport or a driving licence. In the United Kingdom that is the Passport Office or the DVLA, and the government page also says to report to the police and ask for a crime reference number.
- Protect your name. What is available depends on the country, as set out below.
- Report it. Also tell the job site where the advert or the profile was found, as Report Fraud advises.
Protecting your name, country by country
United Kingdom. The government page lists checking your credit reports with the three main agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, where free checks are available), Cifas Protective Registration (it gave the price as £25 for two years, and it triggers extra identity checks by taking part organisations) and a free Notice of Correction on your credit report. Report to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040.
United States. IdentityTheft.gov is the Federal Trade Commission’s site for reporting identity theft and getting a recovery plan. Report the job fraud itself at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If money went out of an account, contact the bank or payment service straight away.
South Africa. Open a case at a police station. The SAFPS offers Protective Registration on 011 867 2234 and online (we have not checked what it costs). The Information Regulator, which deals with the misuse of personal information, is on 0800 017 160. Official help lists each route.
Elsewhere. Official help, country by country has the reporting route and the identity services for your country.
If the recruiter asks for more
Do not pay anything more, and do not send further documents. People who have lost money are sometimes contacted by someone offering to get it back for a fee, which has its own guide.
When an identity document check is part of a real hiring process
This section is UtilForge’s own explanation. After a written offer, a real employer does ask to see identity documents. The checks are who asks, through which channel, and in what order. Before you send documents, find the employer’s own website yourself and ask them, using the contact details on it, how they collect them.
Sources
- Stop Think Fraud (United Kingdom government), what to do if your identity has been stolen, 29 May 2026
- Report Fraud, recruitment scams (no date shown on the page)
- Report Fraud, identity fraud and identity theft (no date shown on the page)
- The Federal Trade Commission consumer advice, job scams, March 2023
- IdentityTheft.gov
- Southern African Fraud Prevention Service
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