Reports of employment scams doubled in 2025, with young job seekers bearing the brunt, according to a study by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). About 32 per cent of Gen Zers said they had been a victim of a job scam, compared with 15 per cent of Gen Xers, as a tough labour market leaves applicants vulnerable to fraudsters posing as employers.
The UK is seeing a similar pattern. Job vacancies have fallen to their lowest level in five years and unemployment is rising, creating conditions in which scammers can exploit desperate candidates. “It’s one thing to say ‘don’t open attachments’ and ‘that email is dangerous’, but if I think this email might be my shot at getting a job, it’s a different risk,” said Josephine Wolff, a cybersecurity policy professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. “Unemployed job seekers are in a very vulnerable position and susceptible to this type of manipulation.”
AI‑driven scams on the rise
The technology behind these scams has become far more sophisticated, with artificial intelligence enabling fraudsters to impersonate employers with alarming precision. “Before AI, there was quite a bit of labour in these scams, meaning they were often generic, filled with typos and easier to detect,” said Pardis Emami‑Naeini, a computer science professor at Duke University. “Now everyone can turn out a highly effective and sometimes personalised [false] job message very quickly and use it at scale.”
AI is now being used to create polished job advertisements, realistic company profiles and even deepfake video interviews. Fraudsters can generate convincing, personalised messages in large volumes, making them far harder to spot than older, error‑ridden attempts. At the same time, AI is also contributing to an increase in CV fraud, with candidates using the technology to falsify experience or qualifications.
Scammers pose as legitimate employers, often guiding victims through a fake hiring process before requesting bank account details under the guise of a £1 background check or setting up direct deposit for payroll. Others embed malware in links or attachments. A growing tactic involves offering high pay for simple online tasks, such as liking videos, with small initial payouts to build trust before victims are pressured to send their own money to “unlock” earnings. In the UK, a rapidly growing type of fraud – coercive task scams – has already led to significant financial losses, with victims pressured into depositing money to clear fabricated negative balances.
‘You think you’ll spot the warning signs’
Job seekers like Sally, a 22‑year‑old graphic design graduate from Minneapolis, know how easy it is to be deceived. After sending out countless applications, they received an email that seemed legitimate: the sender claimed to be from a real biotech company in Seattle, used sophisticated language, included a company logo and had a professional email domain. “I didn’t want to look silly in the interview, so I tried searching for my original application,” Sally said. They soon realised they had never applied to that company. On Reddit, they found the same fraudulent email posted repeatedly. “You think you’ll spot the warning signs. But you’re not the exception, you’re prey to it too,” they said. “That’s the reality of this hell job market.”
Hruthik Narayan Sarva, 25, a software engineer in North Carolina, has applied to more than 1,500 jobs and internships since last October without receiving even a rejection email from most. When an email arrived asking for an interview, he thought it was real. The fraudster claimed to be from business publisher Mark Farrah Associates and offered the perfect role: data analyst intern. “I only became suspicious when in the Teams interview, there was no name attached to the interviewer and he explained it would be conducted via chat,” Sarva said. The pay was higher than market rate, and the position was remote with flexible hours – further red flags. After his brother advised caution, Sarva contacted the company directly and discovered the job offer was fake. As an international student living alone, he said, “I didn’t know what job scams were or that they could happen.”
Katie Miller, 47, a senior graphic designer in Oregon, was laid off last October after six years with her company. She has sent out more than 400 applications and reached only a prescreening interview after several AI phone calls. She realised she was being scammed when an executive from Frontier Senior Living promised to get back to her just a day after the interview – a suspiciously short timeline. The company confirmed the executive had been impersonated. “It’s just a really frustrating job market and now add this to the pile,” Miller said. “People already want to give up and [the scammers] know this, so they see it as an opportunity for them.”
How to spot a scam
Priya Rathod, a workplace trends expert at Indeed, said job seekers should be wary of lofty promises that appear too good to be true. “The scammers promise you the world,” she said. “You’re going to have high pay, flexibility, great benefits, but ultimately the actual job is extremely vague. That is a red flag.” Alongside generous offerings, scammers often request personal or financial information. “Recruiters will never ask for personal information or money,” Rathod added.
Common warning signs include unsolicited job offers via WhatsApp, text message or social media; interviews conducted solely via chat; rushed hiring processes; and communication with poor grammar or generic email addresses. A legitimate company should have a verifiable online presence and be found on official registries such as Companies House in the UK. Job seekers should never pay for training, equipment, background checks or administrative fees – legitimate employers never charge applicants.
Both Monster and Indeed said their security teams regularly monitor job postings and remove listings that are not legitimate, though scammers often directly message or email candidates found through these sites. “These scams really erode job seekers’ confidence in the job search process,” Rathod said. “We cannot control what the scammers do, but we can control what goes up on the website, and we frequently post educational information about the latest job scams for job seekers.”
Some applicants are now moving away from major platforms. Sarva uses Handshake, a vetted job platform for college students and recent graduates. Sally focuses on local job boards and networking with other artists at cafes, while keeping a meticulous spreadsheet of every application. “The scammers are not random people in a basement – they are professional groups of people,” Sally said. “What I can do is control what I do: staying motivated, doing my research and being organised.”
