Yes, LinkedIn has job scams, and they follow a small number of patterns. Someone posing as a recruiter, or a job post copied from a real company, gets you talking. Then the “job” turns into a request: pay a training fee, buy equipment, deposit money to release task earnings, or send your ID and bank details before any contract exists. LinkedIn’s guidance says legitimate companies should not require you to pay anything to apply, and it lists a request for your bank details or ID photos before a formal hire as a warning sign.
This page covers the scam types that LinkedIn and government agencies describe most often in 2025 and 2026, the checks LinkedIn gives you on a job post and a recruiter, the latest official figures, and what to do and where to report if you have already responded. It ends with a section for employers hiring across borders, whose genuine offers can look like scams to the people they want to hire.
These are the patterns that LinkedIn’s Help Center, the FTC, and the Singapore Police Force describe in their current guidance. Most scams combine two or three of them.
A profile with a polished photo, a title like “HR Specialist” or “Talent Partner,” and a short work history messages you about a role. LinkedIn tells job seekers to pay close attention to profiles that are incomplete, have few connections overall, or are connected to few employees at the company they claim to represent.
The post mirrors a well-known company, but there is no link to the business, the email or website domain does not match, or you cannot find an address, a business phone number, or an email for it. LinkedIn calls these company impersonators. Some scammers skip the real company altogether and invent one with a convincing name and website.
You are offered simple online work, such as rating products, liking posts, or completing “orders,” and paid small commissions at first. Then you are asked to deposit your own money to continue or to reach higher earnings, and the money does not come back. The FTC counted about 20,000 reports of task scams in the first half of 2024 alone, up from about 5,000 in all of 2023, and it says cryptocurrency is the payment these scammers prefer. In the first half of 2026, Singapore police still named online tasks as a major variant of job scams. Task scams often start with a text or a WhatsApp message, or with a recruiter who moves the conversation off LinkedIn.
The job seems real enough to have a start date, but first you must pay: a training fee, an “equipment deposit,” or the cost of a laptop or phone that you are told to buy and mail to the company’s IT department. A variation sends you a check to deposit and asks you to send part of the money back, which the FTC calls a fake check scam. LinkedIn says legitimate companies should not require transfers, checks, gift cards, or wired funds as a condition of the application process.
A recruiter sends an official-looking offer before any interview, along with “employment paperwork” that asks for your driver’s license, Social Security number, or bank account number, often for “direct deposit.” The FTC describes exactly this sequence in its July 2025 alert, including a recruiter who pushes for the information before answering questions about the job. Real employers do ask for identity documents, but only once you have accepted an offer. The FAQ below explains when that is normal.
Links sent in LinkedIn messages or by email lead to fake portals or “job info” pages that collect your login or personal details. LinkedIn singles out follow-up requests that ask you to click a link to answer extra application questions, especially questions that ask for your Social Security number.
No interview, instant onboarding, and pay far above the market for easy work. LinkedIn flags postings that focus prominently on how much you will earn in the first year, as an advance, or as a signing bonus. The FTC’s April 2026 alert describes fake recruiters who quote a daily or weekly rate for vague titles like “online assessor” and ask you to reply “YES” or “INTERESTED” to get started.
For scams that begin outside LinkedIn, such as verification code scams and fake interviews run over chat, see our guide on how to identify and avoid job scams.
Sources: LinkedIn Help, Recognize and report scams; FTC consumer alerts of July 7, 2025 and April 30, 2026; FTC press release of December 12, 2024; Singapore Police Force, Mid-Year Scam and Cybercrime Brief 2026.
-1.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&name=Blog%20Post%20Banner%20%26%20Images%20(1)-1.jpg)
The table collects recent official figures from the FBI, the FTC, the Singapore Police Force, and LinkedIn. Each source counts in its own way, so the rows cannot be added together.
| Source | Period | What was counted | Figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | 2025 | Employment scam complaints | 24,688 (20,044 in 2024) |
| FBI IC3 | 2025 | Losses reported to employment scams | $362.9 million ($264.2 million in 2024) |
| FBI IC3 | 2025 | Employment scam complaints with a cryptocurrency link | 10,338 complaints and $288.2 million in losses |
| US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) | 2020 to 2024 | Reports and reported losses to job scams | Reports tripled, and losses rose from $90 million to $501 million |
| FTC | 2025 | People who reported losing money to a job or business opportunity scam and said it started on social media | One in three |
| Singapore Police Force | January to June 2026 | Job scam cases and losses | 2,247 cases and about S$34.9 million (2,717 cases and about S$64.0 million a year earlier) |
| LinkedIn Community Report | July to December 2025 | Fake accounts stopped at registration | 88.9 million |
| LinkedIn Community Report | July to December 2025 | Spam and scam content removed, all types | 68.3 million removed proactively, and 158.3 thousand after member reports |
Sources: FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report, published April 2026; FTC consumer alert of July 29, 2025 and FTC data spotlight of April 2026; Singapore Police Force, Mid-Year Scam and Cybercrime Brief 2026, published August 2026; LinkedIn, Community Report. Figures checked September 30, 2026.
In the US, $288.2 million of the $362.9 million lost to employment scams in 2025 came from complaints with a cryptocurrency link, which fits what the FTC reports about task scams. Scams also reach job seekers through social media and messaging apps: one in three people who lost money to a job or business opportunity scam in 2025 told the FTC it started on social media, and Singapore police name WhatsApp and Facebook as the two services scammers most often used to contact job scam victims.
LinkedIn’s figures cover every kind of spam and scam on LinkedIn, job posts included. They show how much LinkedIn filters out. They cannot show how many job scams get past the filters.
-1.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&name=%E6%9C%AA%E5%91%BD%E5%90%8D%E8%A8%AD%E8%A8%88%20(2)-1.jpg)
LinkedIn’s Help Center and the FTC list largely the same warning signs.
Real employers describe the responsibilities, the team, and what they expect. A post full of buzzwords with no detail is a warning sign. Compare the description with roles you have held before, and notice when it says more about the pay than about the work.
Legitimate companies do not ask you to pay for an interview, training, equipment, or onboarding. The FTC is blunt about it: anyone who asks you to pay to get a job is a scammer.
Recruiters generally email from a corporate account. Messages from a free address such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook, or from a domain that looks like the company’s but does not match its website, are a warning sign. So is a company with no website, address, or phone number that you can find.
If you are offered a job without a call, a video interview, or a conversation with the hiring manager, treat it as a warning sign. Short one-day gigs aside, a company that hires someone explains the details and the next steps first.
A real recruiter usually has a complete profile, visible experience, and connections at the company they represent. LinkedIn says to pay close attention to profiles that are incomplete, have low connection counts, or are connected to few of the company’s employees. On a job post, LinkedIn also shows when the poster joined LinkedIn, for example “Joined LinkedIn in June 2018.”
Be wary of any request for your passport, ID, Social Security number, or bank details before a formal hire. A common line is that the employer’s country requires the information from foreign applicants for compliance. Ask for a video call, and check the local rules yourself before you send anything.
Urgent requests to continue on WhatsApp, Telegram, or an external form are on LinkedIn’s list. So are repeated calls and pressure to accept on the spot. Real employers give you time to decide.
If the salary is far above the market rate for your experience, or the role seems too flexible and easy for the pay, slow down and take the time to verify it.
Messages that are not addressed to you personally, or that are full of spelling and grammar mistakes, are on LinkedIn’s list of warning signs. So are job posts with multiple misspellings and grammatical errors.
Real companies have a process, even for contract roles. If things move fast with no clear steps, no documentation, and no named point of contact, treat it as a red flag.
Four checks take a few minutes.
Sources: LinkedIn Help, Verification badge on job posts, Account age on LinkedIn profiles, and Workplace verification via Recruiter license; FTC consumer alert of July 7, 2025.
If you have paid money or sent documents, act the same day:
Be wary of anyone who contacts you afterward offering to recover the money for a fee. Recovery scams are a category of their own: the FBI’s IC3 received 10,516 complaints about them in 2025, with $1.4 billion in reported losses, a figure the FBI notes can include money lost in the original scam.
| Where you are | Where to report | How |
|---|---|---|
| Anywhere, for the job post | Report this job, on the job’s details page. See Reporting jobs on LinkedIn | |
| Anywhere, for a message or a profile | Contact LinkedIn from Recognize and report scams | |
| United States | Federal Trade Commission | ReportFraud.ftc.gov |
| United States | FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center | ic3.gov |
| United States, if you shared your ID or Social Security number | Federal Trade Commission | IdentityTheft.gov |
| Singapore | ScamShield | Report a scam at scamshield.gov.sg, or call the 24/7 ScamShield Helpline at 1799 if you are unsure whether something is a scam |
| Everywhere else | Your local police | LinkedIn’s own advice for anyone who has been the victim of a scam |
Sources: LinkedIn Help, Reporting jobs on LinkedIn and Recognize and report scams; FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report; ScamShield. Checked September 30, 2026.
Most of this page is written for job seekers, but the same scams hurt real employers. A company hiring in a new country, where nobody knows its name, sends messages that can look a lot like a scammer’s: an unfamiliar company, a remote role, and eventually a request for documents. Candidates who have read warnings like the ones above may simply not reply.
The FTC’s July 2025 alert sums up the scammer’s side in one line: scammers are always “hiring,” but what they want is your money, your personal information, or both. Employers can be targeted directly, too. The FBI’s 2025 report describes fake candidates using voice spoofing, and possibly voice deepfakes, in online interviews. From its complaint data, IC3 says there does not seem to be significant dollar loss from these schemes, because the goal generally appears to be access to the company’s computer networks.
To look like the real employer you are:
In the United States, the timing is set by law. Form I-9, the identity and work authorization check, comes after the candidate accepts the offer: the new hire completes Section 1 no later than the first day of work, and the employer examines the documents and completes Section 2 within three business days of the start date. A candidate asked for a passport scan before the first interview has every reason to be suspicious.
Across borders the question gets harder, because the contract, the payroll, and the statutory contributions all have to follow the rules of the country where the person works. That is the work an employer of record takes on. It becomes the legal employer in that country, so the candidate signs a local employment contract with a registered employer instead of an informal agreement with a foreign company they have never heard of.
Sources: USCIS, Completing Section 1 and Completing Section 2 of Form I-9; FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report; LinkedIn Help, Verification badge on job posts.
We act as employer of record and run payroll for companies hiring outside their home country. For the candidate, that means the offer comes from a registered employer, with a local employment contract and pay that includes the taxes and contributions the local law requires.
Job scams on LinkedIn work because the site feels professional and the messages look like the real thing. The defenses are simple, and they work best together: never pay to get or start a job, keep your documents until after a formal offer, check the badge and the join date, and find the role on the company’s own site. If something has already gone wrong, report it to LinkedIn and to the authorities the same day.
If you are the employer, make every step of your hiring easy to verify, and ask for documents only when a real offer is on the table.
Yes. LinkedIn’s Help Center lists job scams among the common scams on LinkedIn: people pretending to be recruiters or employers who offer high-paying jobs for little work, including mystery shopper, work-from-home, and personal assistant scams. LinkedIn also reports stopping 88.9 million fake accounts at registration between July and December 2025. You can still job hunt on LinkedIn safely if you check each post and recruiter before you share anything or pay for anything.
Seven patterns come up again and again in LinkedIn’s guidance and in government alerts: fake recruiter profiles; job posts that copy a real company; task scams; pay-to-start schemes such as training fees, equipment purchases, and fake checks; early requests for your ID and bank details; phishing links and fake application forms; and offers that are too good to be true. Task scams stand out in the official data. The FTC says they helped drive the rise in reported job scam losses in 2024, and Singapore police still named online tasks as a major variant in the first half of 2026.
LinkedIn’s official guidance is its Help Center article Recognize and report scams. For job seekers, it lists requests for payment or account credentials; postings that focus on pay; early requests for your Social Security number, banking details, or ID photos; urgent pressure to move off LinkedIn; emails from generic addresses such as Gmail or Yahoo; poor grammar; company impersonators; requests to buy equipment and mail it to an IT department; follow-up forms that ask for personal information through a link; and posters whose identity you cannot quickly verify. A separate page, Reporting jobs on LinkedIn, explains how to flag a post.
Check four things: whether the post carries LinkedIn’s verification badge and what it verifies, the poster’s “Joined LinkedIn” date on the post, whether the same role appears on the company’s own careers page, and whether the recruiter’s profile is complete and connected to other employees at the company. Then search the company’s and the recruiter’s names with “scam” or “complaint.” A missing badge does not make a job fake on its own, because LinkedIn is still piloting it.
After you accept a formal offer. In the United States, the Form I-9 identity and work authorization check happens after you accept: you complete your section no later than your first day of work, and the employer examines your documents within three business days of your start date. The FTC’s rule of thumb is that real employers will not ask for your bank account or Social Security number before they have interviewed and hired you, and LinkedIn lists early requests for banking details or ID photos as a warning sign.
No. LinkedIn says legitimate companies should not require transfers, checks, gift cards, or wired funds as a condition of applying, and the FTC says that anyone who asks you to pay to get a job is a scammer. That covers training fees, equipment deposits, “processing” fees, and deposits to release task earnings.
Job posts on LinkedIn can be free or paid, and paid job posts are charged to a prepaid budget or to the card on file. LinkedIn’s Help Center lists the usual reasons for a LinkedIn charge you do not recognize: an active job posting, Premium subscription, or ad; a bank authorization hold for a job posting or a free trial; a free trial or promotion that has ended; or a current or former employee, family member, or friend using the card on their own LinkedIn account. Compare the charge with your LinkedIn purchase history first. If you still cannot place it, read LinkedIn’s unrecognized charges page and talk to your bank.
Stop all contact, and do not send more money to get back what you paid. Report the job or profile on LinkedIn, call your bank about any payment or bank details you shared, and report the scam to your local police or national scam agency. In the US, that means the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI at ic3.gov, plus IdentityTheft.gov if you shared your ID or Social Security number. In Singapore, it means ScamShield. Be wary of anyone who then offers to recover your money for a fee.
Open the job, click the More icon, and select Report this job. Choose “I think it’s spam or a scam,” then “I think it’s a scam, phishing or malware,” and submit. LinkedIn says its teams review each report and correct or remove the post as needed. The option works only from a specific job’s details page. For a scam message, contact LinkedIn through its Help Center.
Founded in 2016 in Taiwan and now headquartered in Singapore, Slasify began with a vision. We saw the rapid expansion of businesses outpacing traditional work models. Inspired by the rise of the internet and the growing demand for flexibility, our founders created Slasify to bridge the gap between global businesses and remote talent. What started as a small team with a big dream has grown into a global powerhouse. Today, Slasify serves over 150 countries and operates in 130 currencies, empowering businesses to expand without borders. Read more.
Find out how global payroll and employer of record services can help you stay ahead in the Southeast Asia job market (which is evolving rapidly).
Learn how to hire in Singapore in 2026: Choosing the right visa type, latest salary threshold, quota management, and how EOR streamlines HR...
Job scammers appear out of nowhere and can target top talent. They can disguise themselves as legitimate employers. Find out how to avoid these...
