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How to tell if a job posting is real

The short answer

A job posting is real when the company lists it on its own careers site, it was posted recently, and the people contacting you write from the company's own email domain. A posting that asks you for money, a check deposit, or your bank or Social Security number before a written offer is a scam.

Updated

Three ways a posting can be unreal

  • Stale. The job was real but is gone, and the listing lives on in a job board or an aggregator's copy.
  • Ghost. The company left it up on purpose with no plan to fill it soon. See what a ghost job is.
  • Scam. Someone posing as an employer, after your money or your identity.

The first two waste your time. The third can cost you money, so its signs come first.

The signs of a job scam

  • They ask you to pay for anything: training, equipment, a background check, a starter kit.
  • They send you a check and ask you to buy equipment or send part of it back. The check bounces after you have sent the money.
  • The interview happens only by text or chat app, and an offer comes within a day without anyone asking about your work.
  • They want your Social Security number, bank details or a copy of your ID before there is a written offer and a hiring process.
  • The email comes from a free address or a domain that is close to, but not, the company's own.
  • The pay is high for little work, and the duties are vague: reshipping packages, processing payments, rating products.

If you see these, stop replying. You can report a job scam to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Four checks for any posting

  1. Find it on the employer's own site. Go to the company's careers page yourself, not through a link in a message, and look for the same job. Real employers list their openings there or on the hiring system they run (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and others).
  2. Look at its age. When was it first posted? A listing up for many months, or reposted with a fresh date, is likely stale or a ghost.
  3. Check who is writing. A recruiter's email should end in the company's domain, and their name should be findable as working there.
  4. Read for detail. A real posting names a team, a location or remote policy, what the work is, and in many US states a pay range.

Why the source matters

Job boards that anyone can post to are where most scams and stale copies live, because no one checks a listing against the employer. A posting read from the company's own careers site, and dropped once the company drops it, cannot be a stranger's ad and cannot outlive the job by long.

Questions people ask

Is a job on LinkedIn or Indeed real?

Many are, but anyone can post to those sites and some listings are copies of jobs that have closed. Find the same job on the company's own careers site before applying; if it is not there, treat it as closed or doubtful.

Should I give my Social Security number on a job application?

Not before a written offer from an employer you have confirmed is real. Some legitimate applications ask for it for a background check after an offer; a stranger asking for it during a chat interview is a warning sign.

Can a real company interview me over text?

A recruiter may text to schedule, but a real hiring process includes a call or video interview with people you can look up. An interview held entirely over a chat app, ending in an instant offer, is a common scam pattern.

Where do I report a fake job posting?

Report it to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and to the site where you found it.

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