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Is the job too good to be true?
Scammers often offer overpaid remote positions to entice their victims. One fraudulent job ad offered a position working from home with flexible hours and a salary of up to £300 per day. If the opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Have you been hired on the spot?
There is usually a thorough process for hiring someone for a well-paid position. As an employer, you want to make sure that you’re hiring the right person, so there are usually multiple interviews, tasks and background checks, If you’re offered a job based on a chat you have on social media, that’s usually a red flag.
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How has the person contacted you?
Scammers often impersonate recruiters and send messages via text, email and WhatsApp, normally with an element of urgency in the messages. Any employment decision for a large organisation should come through an official channel. Amazon, for example, states that any emails about job offers will only come from an amazon.com address. If it’s sent from a Gmail account, it’s probably a scam.
Are there any mistakes in the correspondence?
Similarly, if the email contains spelling errors, it’s worth double-checking its veracity. Some victims have even seen scammers spell the name of the company they’re impersonating incorrectly or use the name of someone who has no record of working for the business. “If you look up the employer and you’re still not sure, just move on and keep searching,”
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Have they asked for money?
If any fees are required to secure the job or there are upfront costs, it should be clear that it’s a scam. Burridge claims that some people have been “asked to pay fees for administration and travel – or in some cases for fraudulent courses, background checks and other non-existent services”. Similarly, requests to pay for remote work equipment up front are also becoming more common and, if a cheque is involved at any point, that is usually a tell-tale sign it’s a scam.