Editors note: No newsletter next Tuesday. Monday is Labor Day.

I hope you will check out the show, subscribe to Anne Genduso’s show, and learn about scams. You can also catch this show, Nothing Felt Wrong, on Apple Podcasts and many other podcast directories. Scruffy beard at all (it’s the worse I’ve kept since the pandemic), I am sharing my learnings from writing this newsletter, investigating what makes scammers tick, and where I started.

A fake interview can do more damage than you have ever thought.

Last Wednesday, Malwarebytes, a software company, reported a story about a fake company on Indeed lured a victim into a job interview requiring the installation of the Indeed app on an Android phone, which was another app by the parasites.

Let the takeover begin…

Fake companies do fake things, right? Of course, that’s the sign victims are looking for. But if I understand most job seekers in a job interview situation, you are in a state of panic. Whether you’re young or older, you are hoping everything looks impressive.

Maybe you’re rebooting your phone several times trying to get the app to act right. The app you were told to download for the interview has an agenda: to take over your phone.

That doggone Indeed! They’re going ot hear from me after this interview!

Well…

Indeed does state, “Interviewing through Indeed’s platform happens entirely in a browser and never requires downloading a special app.” And likely, victims found out too late. So another team promised you the veteran running back who gained 1,200 yards last year in a trade, but you got the rookie walk-on who has never seen an NFL game snap.

But I digress.

Imagine after the interview with the fake employer, and the fake app is acting out its toxicity.

This ain’t going well at all.

An app on your phone you don’t want is worse than adopting the cat you didn’t want. It’s changing everything, including how your phone behaves. It’s not working like it did before you downloaded it.

Maybe you’re one of the few who call or message Indeed for phone help. I don’t know if it really happened, But, it’s what we do. Complain about something we agreed to do without knowing the consequences. The cat could have stayed with its original owner because this was not its work.

Installed malware took over the phone.

The device now belonged to the bad actors.

Attempts to uninstall the app became a fight for air. Uninstalling the trojan-like app became impossible. Well, I bet you it felt like it.

While the app impersonates Indeed, it’s loading spyware. The interview becomes a trap, and the phone, a snare.

The Zero-Trust Mindset!

Let’s see how the Zero-Trust Mindset (clarify, verify, don’t just apply) applies to this scenario, but we’ll concentrate on the “clarify” this week:

This step can save you the most time if you’re entertaining applying to a company. I hope it helps you eliminate fake jobs you’re considering, as well as ghost jobs.

It may seem like you’re conducting an “investigation” or performing an “examination,” but these are suggestions where you can carry the spirit of shrewdness by asking clarifying questions. They can be a deterrent, and the scammer could ghost you, and that’s a good thing.

Does the job exist?

While this is a question you would ask yourself, you need a definitive answer. What does the day-to-day look like? What’s the goal? What does success look like? How is success rewarded (other than money)? You can probably think of many other questions, but don’t put yourself at their mercy because they promised a generous salary, PTO, and a flexible schedule.

Clarity is gained before the job search starts.

If you look for anything, you’ll fall for everything. People who are hyper-focused seem to get more opportunities. I’ve recently said that job seekers need clarity on what they contribute. Ask yourself if you would work somewhere you weren’t clear about what you would contribute.

Check this out.

This Greenhouse’s Candidate AI Interview Report 2026 (2,950 participants) had me shook when I first read it. Several data points sent me down a rabbit hole and intersected with the fox holes:

• 63% already participated in an AI interview.

• 70% weren’t told it was an AI bot before the interview.

• 38% gave up.

I’ll dive into it a little more on Tuesday, but this is significant because bad actors have a case for normality. They’re just impersonating what they see from employers and job seekers.

Employers are adapting to 200+ applications per job posting.

How will you adapt to this changing job-search landscape?

1. Since AI job interviews will become the norm, you will need to know how they work and then practice interviewing with an AI bot. This article shares her experience interviewing with one and how it went.

2. You’ll need to ask the right questions and be blunt about preparedness or avoidance. The latter will leave you unemployed longer.

Knowing as much as you can about the company’s hiring process will help prepare you. Consider trying the Gemini Live tool. There might be better ones out there, but the preparation will be the same. This time, practice is needed, and you should take it seriously. Let me know if the tool is helpful.

Enjoy the excerpt.

________________________

In past articles, I’ve reported the statistics that matter to show how real job scams are. I’ve maintained they’re a pandemic, not isolated or a phase. This summer, I’ve seen more data points showing how widespread it is. Yet an alarming number of people don’t recognize one when they see it.

So, without going too deep, I wanted to present the most meaningful surveys from this year.

Here are 10 data points that show how serious the problem has become.

1. 95% of job seekers say they have encountered a suspicious job offer

Monster’s 2026 Job Scam Report found 95% of job seekers encountered fake job offers. It’s one of the major data points I found this year. I found it interesting some LinkedIn users never saw one.

That’s crazy to me. But then again, some people come only to check job application responses or inbox messages, then leave.

• 53% stated being targeted.

• 48% expressed skepticism of any job outreach

Size of survey: 884 U.S. workers

IMPACT: Trust is now the currency smart job seekers will act on.

Resource: 1–2. Monster — Job Scam Statistics 2026: 95% of Job Seekers Report Suspicious Offers (Monster)

2. 98% say today’s job market makes people more vulnerable to scams

While it’s from the same report as the first, it deserves its own data point.

People want the clearest path to spotting opportunities. They’re asking whether it is real or fake. It’s something no one worried about in the past.

Impact: Threat actors have successfully created a “ mirage effect.” Job seekers can’t trust what they see and hear at first contact.

Size of survey: 884 U.S. workers

IMPACT: With deepfake and AI-generated video, fake job postings, and ghost jobs blurring the lines, warnings aren’t enough.

Resource: Monster — Job Scam Statistics 2026: 95% of Job Seekers Report Suspicious Offers (Monster)

3. Job scams succeeded in obtaining personal information 92% of the time in ITRC cases analyzed

The Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2026 Trends in Identity Report found job and employment scams were among the most intensive scams for harvesting personal information.

The Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2026 Trends in Identity Report found that job scams are a breeding ground for personal information theft:

• A Forbes Advisor analysis of the ITRC findings reports job scams obtained personal information 92% of the time.

• Only 21% of victims realized and reacted by withholding their information.

• Common demands from threat actors include names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license information.

Size of survey: 9,253 cases from 6,188 unique people who contacted ITRC.

IMPACT: Money is the short-term goal. Personal information is the long-game win for scammers.

Resource: ITRC — 2026 Trends in Identity Report (ITRC)
For the specific 92% information-extraction statistic, this secondary analysis quotes the ITRC report directly: Forbes Advisor — Job Scams Are Stealing Personal Information (Forbes)

4. Nearly 1 in 4 people who encountered a job scam in Norton’s survey became victims

Norton Research found 33% of U.S. respondents had encountered a job scam or suspicious posting.

• Of those who confronted a scam, 23% became victims.

• 8% of all adults surveyed experienced a scam and then fell for it.

Size of survey: 1,000 from the U.S

IMPACT: Average loss: $8,900. Victims get in deep before realizing something is off.

Resource: https://us.norton.com/blog/research/job-scam-statistics

5. Gen Z professionals report far higher job-scam victimization than Baby Boomers

LinkedIn’s August 2026 research was significant because of the size and the wide variety of users surveyed.

• 31.9% of Gen Z professionals were victims compared with 17.3% of Gen X and 6.5% of Baby Boomers.

• 21% of Gen Z reported losing money

• 12% of Gen X and 4% of Baby Boomers.

• 25% of Gen Z reported losing personal data or identity information, versus 15% of Gen X and 7% of Boomers.

Size of survey: 2,002 from the U.S

IMPACT: LinkedIn is working with the FBI to identify threat actors. It may not be direct, but LinkedIn is showing signs they’re responding.

Resource: https://news.linkedin.com/en-us/2026/LinkedIn-Job-Search-Safety-Pulse

6. 32% of Gen Z professionals say they have ignored scam warning signs because opportunities felt scarce

LinkedIn found that 32% of Gen Z professionals admitted to ignoring job-scam red flags because they believed opportunities were scarce.

• 21% of Gen X and 8% of Baby Boomers.

• 37% of Gen Z said they would be more likely to overlook warning signs when they really wanted a job.

Size of survey: 2,002 from the U.S

IMPACT: It can affect the LinkedIn community at large if one of the three users sees the “coast is clear.”

Resource: https://news.linkedin.com/en-us/2026/LinkedIn-Job-Search-Safety-Pulse

53% of respondents see suspicious job postings as scams

Employ/Jobvite 2026 Job Seeker Nation survey cites:

• The Great Pause. Candidate count drops from 42-35%.

• Significant candidate AI usage: 53% use it for job searching

Size of survey: 1,500 from the U.S

IMPACT: The breakdown of trust between employers and candidates.

Resource: Find the entire survey here.

‘Tis the season for the side-hustle dance, especially if the “Septembr Surge” doesn’t bring them good tidings of joy and opportunity.

Many experts predict a surge is imminent, and scammers are taking notes and marking their calendars. But first, this Bankrate survey (July 2025) and LendingTree’s survey (April 2026) could provide a little insight:

Side hustles were down last year to more than 25% of adults having one, but with Gen Z, it’s around 34%. (Bankrate, 7/9/25)

61% of side-hustlers averaging more than $ 1,200 a month say they couldn’t survive without their extra income. (Lending Tree, 4/20/26)

That “September Surge,” via the eye test, was a spike, not a surge.

And of course, scammers follow the holiday trends of what the season brings. Not just treats, turkey, and toys, but also tricks, traps, and treachery.

If there is one thing you should do this season, it is to radically create a quality verification game. Verify everything and everyone offering unusual, easy-going, low-effort jobs or side-money opportunities.

In fact, vet those opportunities your friend just started, even if they received money. Research it before you jump in.

Today’s Fake Job Market is Slapstick Comedy

Today’s modern job market is an old Three Stooges movie:

Moe (Big employer) slaps Larry

Larry (ghost jobs) slaps Curly.

Curly (job seeker, employee, side-hustler) slaps himself because there’s no one else to slap.

Moe owns all of the layoffs, AI implementation, hiring freezes…

Larry creates ghost jobs (evergreen jobs) and coordinates dysfunction.

Curly is the job seeker, mass-applying, perpetually ghosted, layoff PTSD.

Side-Hustlers Need to Implement Zero Trust, too!

The outlook from the Monster 2026 WorkWatch, written by Vicki Salemi, seems to be ringing loud while we head to September:

52% are expecting more layoffs. 49% fear (my word) AI will affect more jobs.

32% already have a side hustle—and another 30% plan to start one this year.

More people will look for second gigs and side hustles.

More people won’t do the verification necessary to avoid the bum-rush scammers’ seasonal hiring at all hours of the night, but it's not so silent for jobs and side hustles.

There’s a small difference between what job seekers and side hustlers need to watch for, and both should lead with “Zero Trust.”

1. Strategy has to lead your search for opportunities.

2. Clarify your goal and industry, and know the difference between real and fake.

3. Verify everything and everyone.

4. Don’t just apply. Never trust anything upon first contact, whether a job posting or someone offering you a franchise opportunity. Rigorous verification must be a part of the process.

Ghosting the ghost

I like how LinkedIn frames Gen Z job research as “Proof of Life.” It means making sure the company and recruiter’s contact information points to a real person with legal standing and actual credentials.

In the article, I stated,

You can read the entire article here:

The Job Scam Report

Job Seekers, Don't Trust This Job Posting Until You Pass The Silent Test

Please, this one thing for me…

Read more

2 months ago · 7 likes · Mark Anthony Dyson

This week, I wanted to share an excerpt from a podcast I recently appeared on, “Careering with Cameron.” I discussed the “Zero Trust” mindset and offered insights for the employed, unemployed, and underemployed on how to job search safely and strategically. This core mantra can be practiced daily by examining everything and everyone.

Follow the host, Kevin Cameron, on LinkedIn. Lots of great content. His recruitment experience is insightful and helpful to job seekers.

Remember, no one is safe from threat actors luring you into the job-scam abyss. Entrepreneurs, even those we admire, receive fake money-making opportunities.

Workers in blue-collar professions are receiving fake offers. Many have to tread carefully when pursuing training and certifications from credible institutions. Threat actors offer non-existent, easy-path-to-hire training that not only steals cash but also a victim’s financial information.

All scams have the following in common:

• The assurance of being qualified.

• Generous pay, a flexible schedule, easy tasks, and unlimited PTO bait.

• An investment is needed from the victim.

• Little to no time for successful vetting.

• The need is now.

We are so far from 2020, when job scams began an unprecedented surge to more than $500 million since then.

Repeat it with me:

Clarify.

Verify.

Don’t just apply.

Stay scam-free, y’all.

If you’re in a job search right now, your verification must be a regular part of your strategy. It’s important to lead with ”Zero Trust” and understand the threats aren’t loud, sloppy, or disorganized. On the contrary, they have sealed the leaks in their communication.

1. “12 Popular Myths About Job Scams To Destroy Today”

Grammar errors are irrelevant as a determining factor. Neither is the frequent use of “kindly” or those odd quirks humans don’t use. Your ability to verify is what will save you money and months of regret. In most cases, five minutes of using outside channels you can use (not ones threat actors suggest). Just as your computer and phone are subject to multiple updates yearly, so will your ability to increase your knowledge about scams to keep your personal information private.

2. “8 Red Flags To Overcome #Job #Scam Threats Now”

My “Zero Trust” philosophy has been misconstrued for a job seeker potentially missing opportunities because of a “what if” scenario. Well, I’ve maintained that no one would want to work with or for someone who demonstrates “scammy behavior.” I will say Zero Trust could be a significant “pause” rather than a “stop.” While I’m not telling you what to do in any situation, heightened awareness is on every job seeker. The eight flags I mentioned were intended to shift from signs to behavior. It’s a combination of knowing the fundamentals of the hiring process and not waiting until something seems “off.”

3. “Fraud Detective’s Hack: How to ‘Think.Pause.Verify’ Job Scams”

Social engineering is “human hacking.” The emotions that make job seekers vulnerable, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, are the opening threat actors pounce on like a buzzard on its prey. His “Think. Pause. Verify” framework is designed to help people pause and verify any opportunity. He says to freeze your credit report as a free and immediate defense against massive data breaches.

4. “How Emerging Deepfakes and AI Chatbots Will Fool Job Seekers”

While this episode is outdated, it was good to raise awareness. In this episode, I discuss the “John Cena Test” by asking the interviewer to wave their hand in front of their face or to touch their face. AI avatars were struggling to render this physical interaction, revealing the scam. Now, the small differences deserve scrutiny. It’s best now to avoid the first interview when there are questionable verification challenges. The one thing threat actors continue to do is use platforms where voice or text communication is used instead of face-to-face.

5. “How To Spot Fake Career Services Professionals Before Getting Played By One”

This was an important episode where career coaches discussed their experiences when they found out they were being impersonated. Impersonators of career coaches, recruiters, and influencers use platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Fiverr to send platform users fake offers for services. Many career coaches don’t find out until they are contacted by people who were contacted by the coaches’ impersonator. Always verify a career professional’s credentials through official industry registries (like the CPRW or NCRW websites) before handing over your money or your resume.

Careering with Cameron

I was a guest on Kevin Cameron’s podcast. The scaling of job scams by AI is inevitable at this point. Every job seeker must learn how to spot and avoid them in order to navigate the job market. Let me know what you think.

Did you miss last week’s episode? You did! Listen below.

The crew was back together for another insightful episode of not just job scam advice, but also an important discussion about ghost jobs. There are two states in the news addressing them from two different angles:

New York has a bill where they are calling on employers to be transparent to post whether the job is currently hiring, will hire in the future, or a ghost job (not the term used in the bill).

Texas Attorney General is investigating whether LinkedIn is charging its premium members for non-existent job posts.

Both issues I discussed in last week’s newsletter, but hearing the other cast member’s perspective is so interesting. As usual, Ashley, Russ, and Jay join me for quite a robust conversation as we try to make sense of it all.

1. Ghost jobs vs. fake jobs

   No matter how much education we’ve done as a show, in general, job seekers can’t tell the difference between an actively hiring job and a ghost job (real postings kept open indefinitely, aka “evergreen jobs.)”

2. New York’s transparency bill

   New York’s latest legislation demands that employers disclose whether a posted job is for immediate hiring, future planning, or just data mining.

3. Texas vs. LinkedIn

   The Texas attorney general is challenging LinkedIn for charging premium members for access to jobs that may not exist.

4. Real jobs can look like ghost jobs

   Slow-moving state/government hiring processes (sometimes 1-2+ months) frustrate applicants.

5. Recurring/stale postings

   Ghost jobs are reposted repeatedly over years (Russ stated listings are still active two years after applying). Can’t help but to believe it’s data mining.

6. Scammer impact and pushback

   Russ shared how harassment from scammers contacting his workplace, forcing him to shift from public callouts to private, individual investigations.

7. Fewer but savvier scams

   AI-related job scams are more sophisticated (”upper scale”) and harder to detect than before.

8. Employer transparency helps everyone

   There are companies explaining their hiring process (e.g., Nvidia), which helps job seekers. Financial penalties/legal pressure are seen as the real lever for universal change.

Have you heard these podcast episodes?

You might feel as if you’re fighting two wars: the summer hiring slowdown and its 150-pound monster competitor who is looking to rob you of your livelihood by swiping right on your personal information. Both are sucking the blood from your soul even before you’re a victim. If you’re not considering your plan as much as your safety, it’s a risk to job search for you.

For sure, I want you to join us in a couple of days, Thursday, July 23, 12 pm Central, 1 pm Eastern. The podcast with the entire cast- Ashley, Jay, Russ, and me will get you caught up on the latest scam tactics and help you apply the “Zero-Trust” strategies to your job search.

Use the preview below to catch the YouTube Stream.

Here’s what NY is doing about “ghost jobs!”

For the last two years, my premise for ghost job postings has been simple: evergreen or current hiring.

Label it.

The New York Knicks already took care of one ghost the city has dealt with for more than 50 years. Now they are seriously posting up and blocking out ghost jobs.

New York bill S8877 agrees: hiring intent matters. Disclosure of essential information should matter as much as background checks.

Candidates also deserve clarity on:

Pay transparency.

AI use in hiring.

Job posting intent.

Job postings should be regulated.

But pay transparency already taught us something about disclosure: The label can be present, and the truth can still be missing.

At the intersection of honesty and timing, will truth create accountability?

Read the article here.

Et tu, Texas?

Texas is also taking on ghost jobs… on LinkedIn.

Now, Texas has entered the conversation from a different angle. The Attorney General is investigating whether LinkedIn misled consumers by promoting alleged ghost jobs while marketing Premium users.

These are different approaches, but they point in the same direction: greater accountability for the hiring ecosystem.

I wouldn’t be surprised if other states begin asking similar questions.

I’ll be watching.

Does this seem like a game?

The Better Business Bureau has just confirmed what we already knew: job scams continue to surge, AI is a scammers’ playground of tools, and victims are recruited via text for job tasks such as liking videos, rating products, and leaving comments.

It also remains underreported, and we have no data on response times from authorities, which also warrant study. I don’t think we will ever see either.

Victims are losing 50K+ through these scams as these tasks are low-key gamified, leading victims to believe the more they invest, the bigger the return.

In perspective, the reporting on this continues to be alarming, and not enough widespread warnings are broadcast.

The data speaks so loudly:

Monster: 95% encountered suspicious offers.

BBB: employment scam reports doubled.

BBB: half of 2025 reports involved text as the delivery method.

LinkedIn: 90% of reported scam messages attempted to move people off the platform.

ITRC: job scams extracted personal information 92% of the time.

Here’s the latest Better Business Bureau update.

I also created a chart covers several of the top job scam surveys.

Check it out here.

How to navigate the ghost job landscape

1. Limit your personal information to your name and basic contact information. Use the dedicated job search email address (yourname20@gmail.com), a vanity phone number like Google Voice (it’s still free) or YouMail, and your city and ZIP code.

2. Go to the company website and look for currently open positions. Check the news, LinkedIn, and your network to make sure the specific division hasn’t experienced layoffs in the last few months.

3. Check whether the company has a “How We Hire” page. There are many companies that explicitly draw the distinction with language such as, “Future Opening” Status: Other companies, such as The James Agency, explicitly label postings as “FUTURE OPENING JOB POSTING: NOT CURRENTLY HIRING,” asking candidates to submit resumes to be reached out to as roles open.

As I always say,

Clarify.

Verify.

Don’t just apply.

Stay scam-free, y’all.

Please go to LinkedIn and respond to the one-question survey!

I want to know: In the past 12 months, how many job postings or messages have you suspected were scams?

It’s possible to job search safely and strategically.

Every job seeker needs some identifiable, tangible safeguards when job searching. It’s a discussion every career coach should have in 2026 and beyond. Between FTC reports and BBB scam reports, there’s enough data (not to mention the underreporting of victims’ experiences) to know that threat actors are relentless. One layer of protection is not enough.

The same problems exist even as we’ve collectively grown more aware. Through the news, people are still paying money to get jobs. Arguably, many have not shifted away from focusing on aesthetics and do not raise an alarm at suspicious behavior. It’s important to note that FTC reports tripled, and losses rose by 450%+ during the same period when job-scam awareness content proliferated.

I’ve said in prior podcasts unemployed job seekers should freeze their credit reports. But you must respond urgently to vulnerabilities and report them to the appropriate authorities if you’ve given away sensitive information. Check out this conversation with a fraud investigator a couple of years ago:

Vigilance and strategy aren’t opposites — you can search smart and search safely at the same time. Think of it like a pilot’s pre-flight checklist: you don’t skip it because you’re excited to fly, and you don’t cancel the flight because you’re being careful:

Target 10 to 50 specific companies and apply directly.

Stop mass-applying to hundreds of jobs, as this “spray and pray” behavior makes you highly vulnerable to bad actors. Instead of using third-party job boards or “Easy Apply” buttons, go straight to the source and apply directly on the company’s official career website. Random job offers from strangers without verifiable credentials shouldn’t be a thing, and likely a waste of time. The BBB Scam Tracker is an underutilized resource. I have some recommendations in this episode of the podcast:

Scrub your resume of sensitive data.

Your resume acts as a gateway to identity theft, so you should never include your full physical home address; simply listing your city and state is sufficient. Additionally, set up a dedicated email address strictly for your job search, and mask your real phone number with a service like Google Voice or YouMail so scammers cannot link it to payment apps.

Ask “scam-killing” questions.

Do not let desperation cloud your judgment or make you overly compliant. Take executive control of your career by asking recruiters direct questions like, “Who are you?” “Who have you placed recently?”, and “What is the job requisition number?” Real recruiters will respect your diligence, while scammers will often push back, fumble their answers, or block you entirely. Long-time recruiting leader Stacy Donovan Zapar created the tool “The Catfish List.” She says to identify suspicious emails, profiles, and domains scammers use to create stolen and fake identities. When someone Googles a suspicious email address, it brings them here to warn them. You can also check the list of fake recruiters who are impersonating real recruiting professionals.

Secure your devices and accounts.

Protect your digital footprint by using a reputable password manager and never reusing passwords across multiple sites. Enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication everywhere it’s offered. Both Android and iOS have solid built-in password managers, but a dedicated third-party manager (like Bitwarden or 1Password) adds cross-platform syncing and often stronger breach-monitoring — useful if you’re job hunting across multiple devices.

Lead with suspicion and independently verify everything.

Adopt the daily mantra: “Clarify, verify, but don’t just apply.” Never blindly click on links sent to you by a recruiter in a private message or email. Instead, independently validate the company by looking for unvarnished reviews on sites like Reddit and Glassdoor, and use tools like Whois.com to check the registration date of the company’s website to ensure it wasn’t just created a few months ago.

Please, this one thing for me:

I’m doing a survey on LinkedIn and I would love for you to vote. One question. No wrong answer.

Job scam red flags aren't the sexy transparency story people want to share. But they're the one thing everyone wants to spot before it's too late.

A recent LinkedIn survey backs this up:
Most people know to be careful — 72% say they stop to think about whether a job is legitimate before applying, and recruiters are noticing it too (49% say candidates have reached out just to confirm a role is real). But awareness isn't the same as protection: 32% of Gen Z say they've already been a victim of a job scam.

Awareness is out there. It's just not reaching the people who need it most.
So I want real numbers from real people: in the last 12 months, how many job postings or messages have you suspected were scams?

Vote below — zero, a couple, a handful, or more — and share this with your network. The bigger the sample, the clearer the picture.

Why are some of us spotting red flags every week while others haven't seen one all year?

Let's find out.

Please go and let me know how many job scams you’ve seen in the last year.

Your mental health really matters!

If you took last Friday and this Monday off from your job search, it was a good decision.

Sometimes the search itself becomes the stressor. Not because you are doing anything wrong, but because the market feels crowded with uncertainty: job scams, fake recruiters, ghost jobs, vague postings, and hiring processes seem to go nowhere.

Check out the episode with Russ Irby talking about his 18-month job search and 29 final interview rounds. This is where “layoff PTSD” and burnout collide.

Feelings of threat are not always captured by statistics. Sometimes, the subtle signs job seekers share online tell us something important about how unsafe the process feels. And those voices stand out, and the range of emotion tells us even more.

If you look at the last month of articles I’ve published, including the McAfee study on Norton’s site, at least 1 in 3 professionals has seen a job scam posting.

Ghost jobs add to that anxiety.

We’ve discussed “ghost jobs” before. Some HR and recruiting professionals call certain roles “evergreen jobs,” especially when they are tied to high-turnover positions or future hiring needs. But job seekers often experience them differently.

A ghost job is not always a scam. The employer may be real. The company may exist. The role, well, may not be actively open, funded, or intended to be filled soon.

I’ve repeated this one thing: Ghost job openings should have a universal symbol indicating the job is evergreen. Too far ahead of its time? I don’t think so. We’ll discuss this again.

Much of this is echoed in the episode below:

Transparency. The distinction provides clarity.

Still, ghost jobs and job scams create the same emotional result: doubt.

Is this real?
Is this worth my time?
Did I just give my data to someone who had no intention of hiring?

Uncertainty is exhausting.

You’ve heard me say “verify” repeatedly on this platform. It’s equally important to accurately state your skills. Check the company’s career page. Check whether the role has a posting or closing date.

Search for exact phrases from the job description to see if they have been copied or recycled. Look for current employees or recruiters discussing the role through channels the original contact did not provide.

One red flag should slow you down.

Multiple unresolved red flags should stop the process.

Verification should be professional, not confrontational. A legitimate recruiter should not object to basic confirmation through official company channels.

Ghost jobs may not always be criminal, but they still affect trust. And when trust is already low, job seekers become more vulnerable to polished, urgent, and personal scams.

Clarify.
Verify.
Don’t just apply.
Vet everything and everyone.

In this episode of “The Job Scam Report,” we are not only looking at the lack of caution job seekers are taking when scrutinizing jobs, but also at how they are recklessly job searching. My co-hosts, Ashley and Russ, are offering great insight into how employers view job seekers’ self-presentation. view job seekers’ self-presentation.

I personally got a kick out of Russ’ line about his friend presenting an old version of his resume. Let me know if you hear it.

Here are a few highlights of the show:

1. “Spray and Pray” Job Applications Don’t Work.
“Easy Apply” is sucking up job seekers’ energy, as many apply to hundreds of jobs without visible outcomes.

2. Job Searching Is a Skill Most People Don’t Have.
The more strategic job seekers are, the more successful and safer they become. Job seekers who haven’t searched for a job in 10 years or more don’t update their résumés to look modern or relevant.

3. Yes, Safe AND Strategic.

Remove outdated info (physical addresses, old email formats) and understand how embedded metadata in resumes can expose personal information. Know exactly where your resume is going before submitting it.

4. Go Straight to the Source.

Apply directly through the company’s career pages, not job boards. Make sure you use a separate channel, not a link from strangers. Use lists like the S&P 500 to verify legitimate employers, and whois.com. Use three outside channels to verify information about the company, recruiter, or hiring manager.

5. Recruiting Firms: Read the Fine Print
Any recruitment firm will uphold its privacy and data disclosure policies. Make sure it’s a legitimate business, the personnel contacting you are actual employees, and it has a solid reputation.

6. AI Is Making It Harder to Know What’s Real
AI-generated avatars and bots will appear real, but will have subtle characteristics. The more job seekers adopt a “Zero-Trust” approach, the stronger their personal safety precautions become.

7. Networking Is Your Safest Job Search Tool
Referrals from longtime co-workers bypass most of the risks of scams and bots. If you’ve watched their journey, you can be assured of safety. It’s not gatekeeping to decline referring someone you don’t know. Russ and Ashley emphasize how reputation is everything.

I hope this episode increases your knowledge and awareness of job scams. Much of what we shared can apply to any type of scam. Today’s job search is a skill from beginning to end. It’s supposed to drastically improve over time, showing up in outcomes.

Stay scam-free, y’all.

Don’t miss these episodes

There are six surveys I think every job seeker should understand: surges in job scams pose a threat. You’re not just looking for bear traps. It’s a landmine out there.

Today’s job search should be safe and strategic. It is up to job seekers to research recruiters and companies and understand how job scams work. It’s important to question everything, and third-party verification is critical to the process.

All the groups mentioned in the chart may have the same soft areas, with different events to present each one’s vulnerability. It’s important to understand why education, knowledge, and awareness are critical. Preparedness is not only training for physical danger but also for the emotional toll of a job search.

What to know about the data

All but one are group surveys. I thought it was important to include the thousands of workers and job seekers. This one event could affect all other groups I included.

One caveat in all of these surveys is the relatively small number of participants. I think it would provide a better perspective if we knew whether they were currently working or unemployed. The state of mind matters to someone passing up or ignoring a fake recruiter with a fairy-tale offer, or to a job seeker who has been active in the job market for a year or more.

Here are factors I tried to align with the chart:

• LinkedIn = behavior, off-platform movement, and red-flag blindness.

• Norton = exposure/encounter rates among U.S. adults and demographics.

• FTC = financial loss trends and task-scam growth.

• BBB = real-world report volume and task-scam mechanics.

• FBI/DOJ = scam infrastructure and targeted espionage funnels.

• Academic research = while not specifically included in the data, college students are exposed to psychological vulnerabilities, behavioral signals, and emotional manipulation.

Military

U.S. military personnel get limited job training. The separation from active duty can be quite challenging. While they do have required career training, most agree it’s not enough. The transition from soldier to civilian is a born-again-like experience. Their work experience will need to be reframed and now marketed to various employers. Most of the people I’ve ever talked to feel like aliens.

For married military personnel, particularly their spouses, job changes may have been frequent due to frequent relocations. The Better Business Bureau’s 2021 data was the latest I could find showing that job scams were #1 among military veterans and spouses across all scam types.

On January 20, 2026, the House passed H.R. 1663, the Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Act (VSAFE Act). The bill would establish a Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinate fraud and scam prevention, reporting, and incident response, and to serve as a central point of contact for veterans seeking scam-prevention resources.

Federal Workers

Tens of thousands of federal workers have been laid off since February 2025. While few were able to retire, most struggled to find private-sector jobs. Many still feel the threat of “layoff anxiety.” The federal work environment is unstable, like a ship buffeted by high winds and rough seas.

Bridge income (a job or opportunity for income while looking) seems appealing and a scammer’s delight for unguarded victims. During this turbulence, a fast, vague consulting offer feels like a lifeline, causing workers to skip the verification process. Instead of a generous offer raising red flags, it presents an individual with entertaining possibilities.

Federal workers and military personnel have this one thing in common: both are unfamiliar with today’s hiring process or the job search in the wild. Unlike military or federal work, random recruiters are not vetted, and assuming they are is dangerous.

College Students

Universities have two critical events a year that everyone knows about, and scammers understand the behavior of incoming freshmen and new graduates seeking internships and jobs. It’s hard to say whether schools offer students adequate job scam education. Perhaps those of you who are subscribers and educators can share how you educate your students about job scams.

Freshmen (most) are starting from ground zero as they are making life decisions for the first time. While they are told to trust their administrators, they’re also making new friends and forming a de facto family. Many of them will trust the friends almost as much as they do family while at school. When one finds a “too-good-to-be-true” job, they share it with friends. Many are at risk of becoming “money-mules” for fake companies. The school promising to take care of students lacks the resources to provide quality education and, by omission, becomes the very enabler it warns against.

Students lack resources, and fake recruiters and companies use opportunity as bait. Easy opportunity. The promises of getting paid more for less, the creation of urgency and trust, and the students’ immediate needs to survive are unfamiliar territory for them.

Older Worker 55+

While older workers are likely the most resilient group because they have survived past layoffs, the 55+ group has the scars and the stories. Yet when they reach their fifties, they’re seen as a liability by default. Employers aren’t checking for them anymore. They’re punished for growing older, gaining more experience, and becoming more costly.

They endured several economic downturns, including job losses, reduced financial leverage, and changes in employment. Bad actors understand that older workers fear a lack of usefulness, mourn the diminished demand for their services, and are coming to terms with their new retirement status. When they hear from bad actors, they are a fit for a position, it offers them hope. They temporarily trust what someone offers as bait, not as confirmation of their worth.

While this group is the least scammed, they pay a higher price. Not just monetary, but it also costs them their time. Many older workers are working against time, as it takes them longer to find jobs in the same industry they left. After so much time, they pivot to a new industry, where they are new and lose the experience that once gave them leverage.

The 2026 Job Seeker

Today’s job seekers are not only battling a saturated job market but also facing unprecedented landmines. Today’s job search is equivalent to cramming for an exam. Each job seeker has to research jobs, companies, and recruiters to some extent. Most feel the urge to apply to many more jobs, similarly to trying to make up for all of the times you procrastinated studying until the last night before. Out of 100 unvetted jobs without any employer communication or feedback, how many actual jobs were applied to?

I announced last week during this event, which is this week’s podcast, that the summer newsletter will be open to the public, not just paid subscribers. I want everyone to stay up to date on all things job scams.

Mindy Stern invited me to share job scam tips with her “Accelerator Career Group mostly made up of job seekers, some of whom are actually her clients. Each month she invites any job seeker to come and listen to a speaker. She invited me to discuss “Clarify. Verify. Don’t just apply.”

I believe this group’s questions overall are what most people want to ask at this moment. Having been in multiple discussions on and offline and off-line, most have yet to grasp what I’ve shared here on “The Job Scam Report.” People are generally vigilant for a moment, but the landscape changes often.

Spotting and avoiding fake jobs, recruiters, career service professionals, and companies is essential to conducting a safe and strategic job search.

AI is still new. Everyone has access to it. People will be somewhat vigilant, but won’t notice changes in deviant behavior or deceitful presentations by bad actors.

Here are the questions I answered during the session. Listen for my answers. I’ll be answering many of them more deeply throughout the summer.

Here are the questions participants asked:

1. “Are job scams actually getting worse, or are we just hearing more about them?”

2. “What is the most convincing job scam that you’ve seen lately that even smart professionals could fall for?”

3. “What are the first red flags that job seekers should be aware of before they ever hit apply?”

4. “I’m in tech, so I see a lot of recruiting companies that may or may not be real, and I’ve recently started seeing AI recruiters. So how do I know an AI recruiter is from a legitimate company or from one of these fake companies that just popped up overnight?”

5. “Can you speak to [stolen profiles] a little bit?”

6. “If we find that we have been scammed, what is our next step? What do you recommend us doing?”

7. “Are you referring to the green banner or the one visible [Subscribe to LinkedIn]?”

8. “Should I or should I not [use the Open to Work banner]?”

9. “Is the LinkedIn verification check mark helpful? Is it harmful? What do you recommend?”

10. “Mark, do you have something that you would like to share with our group here that you wanna leave them with so that they walk away with some actionable next step?”

11. “How can we confirm if the jobs presented are legit roles?”

If you want to watch the entire presentation, go to YouTube.

I have just opened the floodgates: I’ve made this newsletter public for the summer. Before, you had to subscribe to my Substack to see the posts after 14 days. Now, everything is visible from May 13, 2024, to today and for the rest of the summer. Please share with your network, friends, and family.

In the last six months, I’ve published a couple of excerpts from this show, but this week I decided to release the full 46 minutes with the whole crew. As always, we are trying to make sense of job scam trends, yet our understanding is the surge continues as uncertainty grips the job market.

We’re all here: Ashley, Jay, Russ, and I are included in this episode.

Highlights from our discussion:

• We talked about LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” badge and how it’s no longer searchable.

• The ROI for scammers to pay for LinkedIn Recruiting to see users using the “Open to Work” tool with the “visible only to recruiters” setting.

• The deepfake bird video going around, and many people can’t tell it’s AI-generated.

• Russ mentions the overwhelming number of candidates using AI to interview.

• Scammers may have up to 98% of their targets’ personal information.

• Ashley said, “ I’ve even started advising my clients, don’t even go to LinkedIn, don’t even go to the regular job boards.”

• We discussed the personal cost victims face, not only from money stolen from them, but also they unknowingly become part of the crime.

• Jay brings up the point scams are more gamified now.

You know the mantra:

Clarify.
Verify.
Don’t just apply.

Vet everything and everyone. Today’s modern job search requires a safe, strategic, and well-informed approach.

Just a reminder…

Join me today as I share with Mindy Stern’s Career Accelerator group on how to spot and avoid job scams!

https://www.linkedin.com/events/clarify-verify-don-tjustapply-h7456666407209041920/

First things first…

The Better Business Bureau’s newest employment scam investigation says nearly 50,000 (up to nearly 54K) people reported employment scams to BBB Scam Tracker over the last three years, with reports doubling in 2025.

At this hour, here’s what we know:

🚩 Text-message scams continue to saturate our communication channels.

🚩Task-based job scams are now normalized.

🚩AI voice cloning and deepfake video scams are forcefully advancing into job interviews.

We can feel the surge through our emails, texts, and social media (especially LinkedIn). We’re researching everyone contacting us randomly to make sure we’re interacting with a human.

We can expose the threat actors if we see more red-flag warning posts, greater community awareness, and a more careful job-search strategy and execution. The focused, well-thought-out job search is far safer and more effective than the traditional, ill-advised “spray and pray” mass-applying so many job seekers practice in 2026.

Mindy Stern SPHR is looking to protect her community and job seekers universally by hosting me, and it seems like dozens of registrants will be there to discuss how we can spot and avoid job scams. Please follow Mindy on LinkedIn for her sage job-search advice from a former Human Resources director.

Join our conversation next Tuesday, and we’ll also take your questions. We can no longer rely on our eyes and ears for safety, especially when awareness is lacking.

See the link below to register

https://www.linkedin.com/events/clarify-verify-don-tjustapply-h7456666407209041920

Watch out for the “fake work” scam.

Much of the same “scammy behavior” persists, but threat actors are now emphasizing one thing: inserting victims into a full-fledged fake work experience.

They text you.
They “hire” you fast.
They assign small online tasks.
They show fake earnings dashboards.
Then they ask you to pay fees, taxes, deposits, or withdrawal charges to get money you supposedly earned.

They’re baiting you into investing in the process, and your return is data theft and an empty bank account.

The Better Business Bureau’s newest employment scam investigation says nearly 50,000 (up to nearly 54K) people reported employment scams to BBB Scam Tracker over the last three years, with reports doubling in 2025. (Daily Herald)

Meanwhile, the job market remains rocky, making scams a viable, though terrible, option. March JOLTS showed about 6.9 million openings and 5.6 million hires. The BLS’s latest data are clear: openings do not always convert into hiring, which leads me to question how ghost jobs muddy the job-search waters. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

The job market remains a minefield of uncertainty and job scams. With both in the same market, job seekers must prepare with strategy. An organized spreadsheet of the jobs you apply to is only the beginning of an effective job search.

Job uncertainty, mixed with job-seeker doubt and the urgency to find work, exposes vulnerability much more.

Top stories and what they mean

1. BBB says job scam reports doubled, and “task-based” scams are driving the new wave

The central story this week is BBB’s new employment scam warning. Local outlets in Wisconsin and Illinois highlighted the same BBB findings: employment scam reports doubled from the previous year, text-message scams exploded, and task-based scams are now a major pattern. (FOX6 News Milwaukee)

The script is usually simple:

It’s the usual random text offering generous pay for minimal effort like writing reviews, liking TikTok videos, commenting, reviewing products, and the like. They say you can make $400-800 for 3 hours of work, all the PTO you can eat, flexible hours, and, in your mind, it’s freedom.

At first, the “worker” may see small fake earnings appear in an account. Then the scammer creates a withdrawal problem: pay a fee, pay taxes, upgrade your account, verify your wallet, or deposit money to unlock your earnings.

Remember: No legitimate job makes you pay to receive wages. No legitimate employer asks you to deposit your own money to unlock your paycheck. And “like/subscribe/watch videos for pay” jobs should be treated as highly suspicious from the start.

2. AI voice cloning and deepfake video scams are becoming part of the trust-building process

This week’s AI voice and deepfake stories are a thing. If the recruiter, interviewer, executive, or “manager” sounds credible, it could persuade a desperate job seeker to act.

The FTC has warned the public scammers could use voice cloning to make requests for money or information more believable, including calls sounding like a boss or a family member. The FTC advises using a trusted channel before acting. (Consumer Advice)

CHOICE also warned deepfake videos can clone trusted faces, bodies, and voices, and people often overestimate their ability to spot AI-generated faces. One cited study found that nearly 90% of respondents thought they could identify synthetic faces, but only 42% could distinguish real from AI-generated images. (CHOICE)

We cannot trust our eyes or ears to detect deepfakes in audio and video. I cannot express how critical it is to rely on research and careful vetting BEFORE an interesting FTC data showing 37,556 such interviews or any engagement. It’s critical you communicate with real companies and employees. Real hiring processes and their people are forthright with their credentials and should make sure you’re real, too.

We talked about cloning on a past podcast episode. Ashley, in particular, warns about how conversations with threat actors could be harmful:

3. Employment-related identity theft is now part of the hiring-fraud conversation

The Olympian/Stacker article identifies employment-related identity theft as a growing concern, citing FTC data showing 37,556 such cases were reported in 2024. (The Olympian)

Resumes, LinkedIn profiles, portfolios, public work histories, and interview recordings are data can be used for impersonation. Fake candidates and stolen identities slip into hiring pipelines due to process anomalies.

What this means for job seekers: Your job search is not just about getting found. It is also about controlling how much of you is available to be copied.

If you are a former government employee who has been unemployed for more than 6 months, posting your resume publicly is a bad idea. Again, Ashley points out that there’s unique data on your government resume that serves as bait for scammers.

Company hiring teams need fair, legal, and privacy-conscious identity verification. There’s an urgent need for alerts to flag mismatched voice/video, inconsistent work history, reluctance to use company-controlled channels, or pressure to move outside normal systems.

4. Hiring transparency may become the next job-posting battleground

The National Law Review piece points to a possible next legal trend: job posting requirements expanding beyond pay transparency into broader hiring transparency. The current pay-transparency movement already forces many employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings, and some legal guidance notes the growing patchwork of requirements across states and localities. (National Law Review)

There are also companies fighting transparency. They’ve been doing this in states with and without state laws. So, relying on one company’s data is not enough, but it could be data for you, knowing threat actors tend to lure victims with generous offers no one else has.

This matters for job scams because transparency is also a fraud-prevention tool. It helps to see where employees or industry professionals can lend some insight into a standard.

A legitimate job posting should make it easier to verify:

The employer.
The role.
The pay range.
The location or remote-work terms.
The application path.
The recruiter or hiring contact.
The data being collected.
The point at which background checks, tax forms, and identity verification occur.

Scammers exploit vague postings. Employers and platforms should move in the opposite direction. But many are slow to do so amid current job redundancies and layoffs. Find out what’s going on in the industry, not just how to find a good-paying job.

What should job seekers do this week?

Use a three-channel rule before you move forward:

Not the links the scammer sends you. Use AI and Google search outside the channels, especially if they’re misspelled or don’t check out. The best is whois.com for checking the legal entity ownership.

First, the job should appear on the company’s official website or verified careers page.

Second, the recruiter should communicate from a company-controlled domain, not just text, Telegram, WhatsApp, Gmail, Outlook, or a lookalike domain.
Third, the interview or next step should occur through a company-controlled system, such as an official calendar invite, an applicant portal, or a verified video platform.

If one channel is missing, slow down.
If two are missing, stop.
If they ask for money, banking details, crypto, gift cards, or payment to unlock earnings, walk away.

Disengage

Report.

For task-based work, add one more rule: never pay money to get paid.

What different job seekers should watch for

College students and new graduates: Easy, good-paying jobs don’t exist in large numbers. It’s safer to consider “easy” a red flag, not an exception. “Easy remote work,” social media assistant jobs, brand ambassador roles, video boosting, app testing, and paid review jobs are a few. Scammers know students want flexible work and quick income. Students should lead with “Zero Trust.”

Long-term unemployed workers: Scammers will use urgency against you. A fast offer after little or no interview should not feel flattering. It should trigger suspicion, clarification, and verification.

Older workers: AI voice and deepfake scams can make impersonation feel more personal and persuasive. Use a family-safe word and a professional verification phrase for unexpected calls about money, employment, or identity documents.

Veterans and federal workers: Be careful with roles that reference your service, clearance, benefits, or government experience, as they may quickly move you to private messaging apps or request documents before verification.

Remote workers: Treat “remote” as a risk category. Remote work is legitimate, but remote-only communication gives scammers more room to control the environment. Remote employers are conducting extensive background checks and using multiple verification channels to ensure they do not hire a fake employee.

What employers and platforms should fix

Employers should create a public “How We Hire” page explaining official recruiter domains, interview tools, background-check vendors, and what the company will never ask candidates to do.

Career services practitioners should create a “How We Work” page. There are many threat actors impersonating professionals who have a LinkedIn presence and a website. The page will help many (not all) verify your credibility.

Job boards should make verified employer identity more visible and harder to fake. They should also flag postings that push applicants to text-only channels, crypto payments, personal banking requests, or off-platform task dashboards.

College and trade career services offices should teach students how to verify a job, not just how to apply for one.

Platforms should enable faster scam reporting, preserve evidence, and warn applicants when a posting, recruiter account, or employer page has been removed for fraud.

Strong line for this week

The modern job scam no longer stops at the fake job posting. It now creates fake workplaces, tasks, earnings, interviews, voices, videos, and sometimes identities.

That is why job seekers need proof before progress.

Clarify.
Verify.
Don’t just apply.
Vet everything and everyone. Today’s modern job search requires a safe, strategic, and well-informed approach.

Don’t miss these podcast episodes:

Editor’s note: No newsletter next Tuesday. Please be safe this holiday weekend. Bad actors don’t do holidays.

The modern job search now has a trust problem before the application even begins.

LinkedIn’s new Job Search Safety Pulse found 72% of professionals stop to question whether a job is legitimate before applying, and 29% say they always do. LinkedIn calls this a search for “proof of life” before a candidate gives a posting, recruiter, or company their time and personal information. (LinkedIn News)

It matters to ask the right questions.

This graphic provides an overview of the article and LinkedIn’s data points:

Job seekers are not just asking, “Is this a good job?” They are asking, “Is this job real? Is this recruiter real? Is this company page real? Is this process real?”

The recipe for an interesting summer is all here: job scams, ghost jobs, doomjobbing, AI-assisted fake postings, entry-level anxiety, recruiter impersonation, and a tech market filled with layoffs and uncertainty.

Job seekers create desperation. The job market provides fuel. They just need to show up at the exact moment job seekers are tired, anxious, and ready to believe a clear path to an opportunity should be a warning, not an invite.

Top stories and what they mean

1) LinkedIn’s new report shows where job scams start: the first message.

LinkedIn’s research says employment scams begin during initial outreach. The January 2026 platform data showed 90% of reported scam messages involved attempts to move conversations off-platform (e.g., WhatsApp, Zoom), and 50% or more of these attempts occurred in the first message. (LinkedIn News)

It’s simple: scammers sell to get the first reply. They need the job seeker to say, “Sure, send me the details,” “Yes, I’m interested,” or “What’s the pay?” Once the conversation moves to text or email, the platform’s safety tools are moot, and the scammer controls the environment.

What this means:
A recruiter who immediately asks you to leave LinkedIn, click a link, text a number, or continue through a private messaging app is not giving you convenience. The parasites are removing traces of their existence. And they don’t mind waiting for you to verify through following their breadcrumbs.

Job seeker takeaway:
There are three things to look for: the company name, the job title, and the link to the role on the company’s official career site. Any deterrence in answering your questions, you have your answer.

2) Gen Z is hit hardest because opportunities feel scarce.

LinkedIn’s report found that Gen Z professionals are more exposed to job scams and more likely to report being victimized: 32% of Gen Z respondents said they had been victims, compared with 17% of Gen X. LinkedIn also found that 32% of Gen Z admitted to ignoring red flags because opportunities felt scarce. (LinkedIn News)

HR Dive framed the employer-side lesson clearly: companies want to attract young workers need to establish trust because job seekers want “proof of life” before applying. Around 30% of candidates check the company’s reputation, where they found the job, whether the posting appears on the company's career site, and whether the recruiter looks real or verified. (HR Dive)

What this means:
When entry-level jobs feel scarce, the promise of a quick interview, remote work, flexible hours, or immediate hiring can override caution. Scammers understand young job seekers often lack experience with what normal hiring should look like.

Job seeker takeaway:
For students, recent graduates, and early-career workers, skepticism is not negativity. It is a job-search skill. A legitimate employer will not punish you for verifying the role, asking for a company-domain email, or checking the posting against the official career site. This is where critical thinking can save you a lot of time and money. It’s best to do the work before you’re entangled in an interview process.

3) Fake remote jobs are becoming formulaic: vague tasks, easy money, low barriers.

Built In’s article argues fraudulent postings rely on a formula: remote work, vague responsibilities, inflated pay, minimal requirements, and urgency. The article says its system flags tens of thousands of suspicious job posts monthly and claims nearly 80% target roles such as data entry, virtual assistant, and administrative support. It also says 88% of fraudulent listings it analyzed prominently used remote-work language. (Built In)

The important point is not every remote job is suspicious. Remote work is real. Flexible jobs are real. Entry-level jobs are real.

The danger is the combination.

One post,” which says “remote,” “no experience required,” “full training provided,” “$35–$49 per hour,” and “start immediately” may be less of a job description and more of a lure. Built In also reported a fake LinkedIn posting created by the author’s team attracted more than 500 applications within 24 hours, showing how quickly polished-looking opportunities can pull in applicants. (Built In)

What this means:
The old advice: look for typos, bad grammar, and generic emails, is no longer enough. Scammers can now produce clean copy, plausible titles, branded documents, and convincing recruiter messages. The better question is structural: Does the opportunity make sense in terms of the pay, role, company, hiring process, and market?

Job seeker takeaway:
Treat “easy remote money” as a verification trigger, not an automatic disqualifier. Pause and ask: Is the job on the employer’s official site? Does the pay match the skill level? Is the recruiter using a company domain? Is the interview process normal? Are they asking for money, banking details, identity documents, or equipment purchases too early?

4) “Doomjobbing” is making job seekers easier to manipulate.

MarketWatch described “doomjobbing” as the job-search version of doomscrolling: applying rapidly and indiscriminately to large numbers of jobs with little hope, little targeting, and little strategy. The article reported that LinkedIn applications rose 45% from 2024 to 2025 while response rates decreased, and it featured a job seeker who only found success after narrowing her search, applying directly through company career pages, and using a more targeted worksheet. (MarketWatch)

This matters for job-scam prevention because mass applying creates two risks.

First, job seekers lose track of where they applied, making unexpected recruiter outreach seem plausible. Second, the emotional wear of constant rejection makes a sudden “perfect” message feel like relief.

What this means:
Scammers benefit from job-search fatigue. They know people are tired of silence, ghosting, rejection, and long application processes. A fake recruiter offering fast movement can feel like a rescue.

Job seeker takeaway:
A targeted job search is also a safer job search. Track every application, apply through employer sites when possible, and avoid responding to “we found your resume” messages unless you can connect the outreach to a real application or a verifiable recruiter.

5) The broader job market is giving scammers better bait.

The Federal Reserve’s 2025 household well-being report, released May 13, says 42% of adults considered “finding or keeping a job” a minor or major concern, up from 37% in 2024. The same report said that 7% of adults were laid off, up from 6% the prior year. (Federal Reserve)

Meanwhile, SFGATE, citing data from Statista and Layoffs.fyi, reported that tech companies had already cut more than 100,000 jobs in 2026, including about 81,700 in the first quarter and roughly 20,000 more in the first six weeks of the second quarter. (SFGATE)

Fortune also highlighted the entry-level squeeze, noting that young job seekers face ghosting, competition, ghost jobs, and concerns that AI could reduce the number of entry-level white-collar tasks traditionally given to early-career workers. (Fortune)

What this means:
This is the environment scammers want: more competition, fewer clear signals, more layoffs, more AI anxiety, more ghost jobs, and more desperate applicants. The scammer’s best weapon is not always technology. Sometimes it is timing.

Job seeker takeaway:
When the market feels scarce, verification matters more, not less. The worse the market feels, the more likely you are to rationalize red flags.

What job seekers should do this week

Create a “verification pause” before every next step.

Before you send a resume, complete a form, accept an interview, provide identification, download software, buy equipment, or move to another platform, stop and verify:

The three-channel rule:
The role should appear on the company’s official career site. The recruiter should use a company-controlled email domain or be verifiable through the company’s official channels. The interview invite should come from a company-controlled calendar or email system.

If one channel is missing, slow down.
If two are missing, stop.
If all three are missing, assume you are being moved into a controlled scam environment.

Also:

Search the company and role independently. Do not rely only on the links the recruiter sends.

Check the recruiter’s profile, but do not stop there. Profiles can be fake, stolen, or impersonated.

Stay on-platform during early outreach when possible. LinkedIn says off-platform movement is involved in 90% of reported scam messages. (LinkedIn News)

Do not pay for background checks, training, certifications, equipment, task deposits, onboarding portals, or “refundable” fees.

Do not send your Social Security number, banking information, direct deposit form, passport, driver’s license, or tax forms before you have verified the employer and reached a legitimate hiring stage.

What employers and platforms should do

Job seekers should not carry the whole burden.

Employers need visible “proof of life” signals: clear career-site postings, recruiter verification, company-domain communication, realistic job descriptions, transparent hiring stages, and easy ways for candidates to verify outreach.

Platforms need stronger pre-posting verification, not just post-report cleanup. LinkedIn says it removes 98.7% of detected spam and scam content before members see it and proactively stops 99.5% of detected fake accounts, but the fact that candidates are still changing their behavior shows the trust gap remains real. (LinkedIn News)

Recruiters also need to understand the new candidate psychology. A cautious candidate is not difficult. They may be protecting themselves from identity theft, financial loss, and emotional harm.

Bottom line

The job search now requires proof before trust.

That is the shift.

Scammers are not only posting fake jobs. They are exploiting the entire emotional system around looking for work: urgency, scarcity, rejection, silence, desire for remote work, AI anxiety, and the hope that the next message could finally be the break.

A real opportunity can withstand verification.
A fake one usually wants speed, secrecy, and your compliance.

Clarify.
Verify.
Don’t just apply.
Vet everything and everyone. Today’s modern job search requires a safe, strategic, and well-informed approach.

If you’ve been reading about job scams in the news, on this platform, or in videos, the only conclusion we can all reach is the escalation and frequency of job scams continue to surge, as do other types of scams.

The job numbers from any angle lack the comfort needed during these times.

If unemployment, or underemployment, were a giant desert you had to walk through, your mind would create small ponds, but it's miles away. You think relief is ahead. The mirage disappears the closer you get.

That's what fake jobs do.

But, in reality, it’s not real.

But presentation isn’t the problem. What your mind creates often is.

This is why constant vigilance is a must.

That’s why “Zero Trust” is what you must lead with when applying for jobs. There won’t be an easy way to spot and avoid bad actors. It’s counterintuitive to lead with skepticism when things get hard.

In this episode, I focus on “recruiting love bombing” and provide reasons not to engage in recruiting communication when it leads with flattery and false promises. I recognize it’s music to our ears, especially when so many rarely get any feedback from interviews, family, or friends during a long job search.

Enjoy the episode, and stay scam-free, y’all.

I’ve created at least 50 podcast episodes, and that number will continue to grow. There’s so much more to say, but more importantly, more warnings are needed. Not enough people are taking the threats of deepfakes, AI bots, and bad actors seriously.

So, here are 5 episodes to represent what this platform is about. That is, to job search safely and strategically.

Why you should listen: Last year’s red flags don’t matter as much as recognizing the more polished versions of today. Bad actors are appealing to your emotional state, not your current job status. Job scam victims range from executives and cybersecurity professionals to other tech-savvy professionals multiple times.

Desperate job seekers are in a job desert. In the mind of a desperate job seeker, they create a great job out of hope and imagination, like people who haven’t had water in a walk in desert for a day or two.

How Emerging Deepfakes and AI Chatbots Will Fool Job Seekers

It’s bad enough that job seekers eat up every compliment they receive during their job search, yet are often on the receiving end of the worst messaging, such as being ghosted or told they were great but not so great. Deepfakes used as recruiters and hiring managers only exacerbate job seekers' vulnerability. At the time of this episode, the “John Cena test” was useful. Today, you must really be detail-oriented to detect fake images even if they’re used by a fake company in an interview.

Fraud Detective’s Hack: How to ‘Think.Pause.Verify’ Job Scams

Scammers may try to break into the hard drive of your computer to get personal information, but hacking humans is far easier. Marc Evan is a Cyber Fraud Examiner who teaches people and businesses how to avoid fraud and spot deviant behavior. He says bad actors prey on fear, desperation, and excitement to lure you to fake hopes and promises.

Marc offers a simple framework, “Think. Pause. Verify,” in considering any opportunity, especially if it’s too good to be true. It exposes the urge to respond with irrational judgment and determine if it’s a real person, connected to a real company, offering reasonable benefits.

How To Spot Fake Career Services Professionals Before Getting Played By One

Jay Jones moderates this panel with Erin Kennedy, Jessica Hernandez, and Melissa Cohen. These ladies are veteran career services professionals who have experienced being impersonated. They share stories of how their likeness was stolen or used to mislead job seekers to pay for non-existent services. It is an essential listen because falling for a fake resume writer means handing over your complete work history, address, and contact data: the exact building blocks needed for full identity theft.

Here’s to a Better And Job Scam-Free 2025 (Focusing on Ghost Jobs vs. Fake Jobs)

It was important to distinguish the difference between “ghost jobs” and “fake jobs.”Ghost jobs are posted by real companies collecting data or building pipelines without any intention to hire, while fake jobs are created by entirely fraudulent companies designed to steal your money or identity. The objective is to pursue only real opportunities and avoid fake ones. Understanding these behavioral differences helps job seekers recognize red flags and avoid wasting time, personal data, and dead-end applications.

Honorable mentions:

Your resume is likely a vector for scammers, no matter how well you’ve positioned your career. Ashley and I discuss how vulnerable metadata on a resume is and the importance of not including certification numbers. It’s quite a powerful episode.

This makes the list primarily because of the timing of the topic, and The Washington Times featured it in March 2025. We covered the initial Federal layoffs near the beginning of mass separations and provided some rarely discussed safety strategies.

This week marks two years since the launch of “The Job Scam Report.” The project began as a direct response to a persistent job-market problem. Over that time, I’ve created more than 150 pieces of content—articles, videos, and podcasts.

I’m grateful that more than 3,000 subscribers have chosen to join me on this journey. Many of you found your way here through my work on “The Voice of Job Seekers.” The origins of this project began with my observations there, watching job seekers not just being misled.

They were lured and trapped.

Job seekers have long been considered prey for scammers wanting to steal personal information. In 2022, as I began to pay closer attention to job scams, I noticed their methods were shifting. The term at the time was “job fishing”—I described it as “…catfishing, but for jobs.”

As I began sharing my findings on LinkedIn, Marie Zimenoff—host of the Voice of America radio show and podcast “The Career Confidante”—invited me to discuss the topic. Back then, I didn’t view it as a long-term problem, but more as a temporary disruption. I expected job scams would subside as the job market reset and job seekers improved their strategies.

However, instead of fading, job scams evolved into a more sophisticated form of theft. Technologies like AI and video, while revolutionary, also enabled bad actors to scale their efforts. As technology has helped us become smarter and more productive, it has also given scammers new tools for deception.

Technology quickly became a double-edged sword. As excitement surged around AI and video production tools, scammers exploited these advances. It began with fake recruiters and HR managers impersonating real professionals, and soon escalated to fabricating entire company experiences—both fake start-ups and large corporations.

Bad actors scraped information from companies like Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Facebook, creating fake websites that closely resembled the originals, but with slightly altered URLs.

And they didn’t have to create a site to lure victims.

They also use real recruiters’ LinkedIn profiles to persuade victims to interview, then extract personal information via WhatsApp, Zoom, and other platforms.

There are many layers to job scams—their evolution and current state are worth exploring. Since launching here on May 13, 2024, I’ve had countless rewarding interactions, and thousands (if not tens of thousands) have benefited from my educational efforts on job scams.

I’m also fortunate to have dedicated partners who help spread this message, sharing my passion for the cause. Special thanks to my podcast co-hosts—Ashley Price-Horton, Jay Jones, and Russell Irby—whose professionalism and insights constantly challenge and inspire me. Their observations and advice are helping thousands, and together, we make a powerful team.

Our collective efforts have also drawn attention from mainstream media. Outlets like The Washington Times, Yahoo Finance, AOL, Newsbreak, Moneywise, and others highlighted an episode last year. We also had the opportunity to present before the Intel Alumni Group.

I’ve appeared on numerous national outlets warning about job scams—including Marketplace Tech by APM, NPR, Forbes, the Boston Herald, and others.

Two years later, I remain as passionate and motivated as I was on May 13, 2024. This Thursday, I’ll be sharing the five most important shows.

Today’s episode is a rebroadcast of my appearance on the Voice of America’s “Career Confidante” from June 27, 2022.

The job market is not collapsing, but it is harder to trust.

This week’s strongest pattern is not one scam. It is the merging of several: fake job texts, AI-written recruiting messages, task scams, deepfake-enabled hiring fraud, ghost jobs, and fake candidates. The common thread is simple: scammers are no longer just faking a job posting. They are faking a hiring workflow.

Top stories and what they mean

1) The FTC’s newest warning: that “job offer text” is probably a scam

The FTC issued a fresh warning on April 30 about fake recruiters using unexpected texts, WhatsApp, or Telegram messages to offer fake jobs. The scam often begins with a generic “we’re hiring” message, then moves into fake checks, upfront payments, or task-based work where the victim must deposit their own money to continue “earning.” (Consumer Advice)

What it means:
The messages don’t raise the same flags by using spelling and grammar errors. They are more natural and feel humane. We need to retrain our expectations by not looking at appearances first, but by noticing abnormalities in their movement, especially when they present themselves as recruiters, HR directors, or talent acquisition professionals.

Job seeker guidance:
Lead with “Zero Trust!” The more unanswered questions you’re left with after research, the more reason to walk away. If the bad actor is promising the world, dream benefits, and generous time off and scheduling, it should be a major red flag, as if someone were saying they have no faults.

2) AI job scams are becoming more convincing — and more emotionally efficient

The Guardian’s April 27 coverage highlighted how AI is being used in job scams and hiring confusion, including convincing fake job adverts, impersonation of legitimate companies, and AI-driven recruitment experiences that leave job seekers unsure whether they were rejected by a person, a system, or a scam. (The Guardian)

What it means:
AI didn’t invent scams. They’re scaled to cast a wider net of victims. Fake job descriptions, when read closely, sell the idea of a great job rather than describe essential business needs. The sooner the job seeker realizes there isn’t a problem they’re solving or filling a significant gap, the easier it is to walk away.

That is, if the job seeker is in a depressive state and is creating a business narrative out of very little information. “It looks legit” is more often a feeling the job seeker creates. It’s something the job seeker wants to be true.

How to respond:
Do not try to “spot AI” by tone alone. AI-written messages can be polished, warm, and typo-free.

Strategize your job search to apply to one job at a time by:

• Reading and analyzing the employer’s official career page.

• Confirming recruiter credentials.

• The company should own the email and website domain.

• The interview invite should come from a company-controlled calendar or email system.

• No sensitive documents should be requested before a verified offer, and a legitimate onboarding process is in place.

3) AI-related cybercrime is now formally showing up in FBI data

The FBI’s 2025 IC3 report recorded more than 1 million internet crime complaints and about $20.9 billion in reported losses.

The FBI reported that AI-involved employment scams cost nearly $13 million. (AARP) The FBI’s 2025 IC3 report recorded 24,688 employment-related internet crime complaints, with reported losses of $362.9 million.

*2025 is more of a projection, while the other years are well-documented. We do know there was a significant increase in the amount of money lost.

What it means:
The data is finally catching up to what job seekers have been experiencing: AI is not just a writing tool. It is now part of the fraud infrastructure.

Keep in mind the numbers are only referring to what’s reported. Many job scam victims do not report. IC3 data measures reported complaints. Many victims do not report because of shame, confusion, fear, or because they do not know whether the fake job was a crime, a bad employer, or a platform failure. It’s also possible that many may have taken on an assignment, thinking it was training, but ended up participating in a crime.

Why the numbers differ:
I like to report on survey results to my audience, keeping in mind numbers are measured the same way, using the same methodology. I am learning some organizations analyze datasets of job postings or model detection patterns. The totals, loss amounts, and age-group findings differ. The discrepancy is not always a contradiction. It is often a matter of methodology.

FTC, FBI, BBB, Norton, banks, and academic studies do not measure the same thing. The FBI measures reported internet crime complaints. The FTC measures consumer fraud reports and losses. The BBB tracks reports submitted to its Scam Tracker. Norton uses survey-based estimates.

4) Military transitioners and veterans need job-scam guidance that fits their situation

Military.com recently published job-scam guidance for veterans (April 13), warning about fake job postings and red flags, including suspicious recruiter behavior, unrealistic pay, pressure, and requests for money or sensitive information. (Military.com)

What it means:
Veterans and transitioning service members are targeted differently from general job seekers. Scammers can exploit military-specific urgency: relocation and transition timelines, security-clearance language, remote-work needs, benefits confusion, and the desire to quickly replace military income.

I have had many conversations with veterans in the last six months and learned that much of their training involves leading with suspicion, noting where exits are when they go out in public, and being hyper-aware of suspicious behaviors. Even with their training, bad actors offering ideal jobs while their victims are separating from active duty can still fall for fake job schemes.

Military transitioner guidance:
Be careful with any recruiter who overuses clearance language without naming the contract, prime contractor, agency, work location, or realistic hiring timeline. A legitimate defense contractor or federal contractor should be able to verify the job through a company domain, an official career page, a contract-related role description, and a standard compliance process.

Do not share DD-214 details, clearance documents, VA benefit information, bank data, or identity documents with an unverified recruiter. Verification should happen before the paperwork.

5) International warning: Australia is seeing young job seekers hit hard

Australia is a useful parallel to the U.S. because many scam mechanics overlap: social media recruiting, remote-work promises, task scams, crypto payments, and fake employer impersonation. ABC Australia reported employment fraud among people aged 24 and under more than doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to Scamwatch. Cyber Daily also reported that Australian scam incidents may be down overall while average losses rose, and that job scams doubled in the small-business context. (ABC News)

What it means for U.S. job seekers:
International scam patterns matter because the infrastructure is global. WhatsApp, Telegram, crypto wallets, fake portals, social media ads, mule accounts, and AI-generated recruiter messages do not respect borders.

The U.S. parallel is obvious: young workers, students, immigrants, and people seeking flexible remote work are often presented with the same pitch — easy work, fast pay, no friction, and a “small payment” or “verification step” that turns into financial loss.

Practical rule:
Any job that requires you to pay money to earn money should be treated as a scam until proven otherwise. Australia’s Scamwatch says the same: stop and check any job offer that requires payment to make money. (Scamwatch)

6) Fake candidates are now part of the same employment-fraud ecosystem

Built In recently published an employer-focused article on fake job applicants, noting that employment fraud now includes identity theft, proxy candidates, polywork fraud, and nation-state-backed operations. This matters to job seekers because employers are responding with more identity checks, greater suspicion, and sometimes more friction in the hiring process. (Built In)

Employer-side recommendation:
Employers should publish clear applicant safety pages, use verified domains, keep job listings synchronized with official career pages, restrict recruiter outreach to approved channels, and make identity verification transparent. Platforms should label verified employers, preserve posting dates, remove stale listings, and make it easier to report fraudulent postings.

Research and data update: ghost jobs

Ghost-job data remains messier. A new Resume Genius survey of 1,000 active U.S. job seekers found that 67% had encountered ghost jobs, according to coverage of its 2026 Job Seeker Insights Report. Forbes also covered a newer ghost-job study suggesting roughly 1 in 7 job listings may not represent real openings. (CPA Practice Advisor)

Why this is hard to measure:
A fraudulent job scam, a ghost job, an evergreen posting, a stale requisition, and a legitimate role that gets frozen can look similar to the applicant. But they are not the same.

A scam job is designed to steal money, data, labor, or access.
A ghost job may be posted by a real company without immediate hiring intent.
An “evergreen (or ghost) job” may be a legitimate ongoing talent pipeline.
A stale job may simply reflect poor platform hygiene.
A frozen job may be real but paused due to budget, timing, or headcount changes.

The practical response for job seekers is the same: Lead with “Zero Trust!”

Different job seekers need different defenses

College students

Your highest-risk offers are remote assistant jobs, research assistant roles, internships, campus-office impersonations, fake checks, and roles that move you from school email to personal text quickly.

Use your career office as a verification checkpoint. Search the employer’s official site. Confirm the professor or department through the university directory. Never send your student ID, SSN, bank information, or passport scan through email because someone says you are “hired.”

Military transitioners and veterans

Your highest-risk offers involve clearance language, remote contracting, relocation, benefits confusion, and “instant hire” roles. Verify the contractor, the recruiter, the contract context, and the role on the company’s official site. Be cautious with anyone who asks for your DD-214, clearance details, VA benefits information, or banking information too early.

Federal workers and displaced government employees

Your highest-risk offers include consulting, policy research, contracting, foreign-linked business development, fake headhunters, and government impersonation. Do not discuss nonpublic agency knowledge during exploratory calls. Verify the company, domain, recruiter, and client relationship first.

Older workers and long-term job seekers

Your highest-risk moment is not ignorance; it is fatigue. After months of applying, a fast-moving recruiter can feel like relief. Slow down when the process accelerates. A real employer will not require you to deposit a check, buy equipment from a specific vendor, pay for training, or send money to unlock earnings.

Remote-work seekers

Your highest-risk categories are task scams, product-rating jobs, app-optimization jobs, crypto-funded work, data-entry roles with unusually high pay, and “training” that requires deposits. Remote work is legitimate. Remote work with no interview, no verified company domain, and a payment requirement is not.

What employers and platforms should do

Job seekers cannot carry the full burden. Employers and platforms need to protect their future investment not only in their brand but also in current and future employees.

Employers should maintain a public “how we hire” page, list all open roles on the company domain, prohibit recruiters from using personal email for hiring, and tell applicants exactly when identity documents are required.

Job platforms should require stronger employer verification, preserve original posting dates, show when roles were last refreshed, remove stale listings, and create visible reporting paths for scam postings. Career centers should teach students how to verify employers before application season, not after victims appear.

Bottom line

The most dangerous job scams this week were not the loudest ones. They were the ones that looked like normal hiring: a text, a remote role, a polished job description, a fast interview, a clean offer letter, and a small “next step.”

That is the new verification trap.

The safest job search is not paranoid. It is structured. The goal is not to stop applying. The goal is to stop trusting before verifying.

Clarify.
Verify.
Don’t just apply.

Vet everything and everyone. Today’s modern job search requires a safe, strategic, and well-informed approach.

I think it’s essential to prepare job seekers to sharpen their ability to notice anomalies in job interviews. Deepfakes are going to be as common as receiving mail through USPS at home.

OK, a slight exaggeration, but that’s how it will feel.

Anything you saw last year is a start, but if you never noticed one before, it may rattle you. Or, at minimum, question what your eyes may see.

We’re all at different stages because it’s likely not something at the forefront of your mind. Not until you’ve experienced one. Actual companies have been using AI avatars for years, and many job seekers who interviewed were not told at the beginning they were responding to one.

In this article, I’m comparing this year to last year to carefully tread the then-and-now comparisons. I will be learning, much like you, because the evolution of deepfakes is progressing more quickly, with no peak in sight. Almost, in a sudden-like fashion.

Here are five ways deepfakes are progressing from last year to now:

Appearance

Then: Video characters move awkwardly and lack the dynamic movement of most people. The interviewers lacked humane responsiveness. You could ask the person to take the “John Cena test” (ask them to wave their hand in front of their face), and if they fail, it’s likely they were fake. Their communication was often unnatural and lacked authenticity, especially in its first few lines.

Now: Bad actors can produce high-quality videos appearing responsive and interactive. Video production controls the pace of the job interview. The faces appear real, and the voices, while likely cloned, are human.

What you should do: If you research thoroughly and verify every person (or fake) in the interview process before the meeting, you won’t have to struggle to recognize a deepfake. Appearance will be very difficult unless you’ve trained yourself to notice. Please make sure you have an in-person meeting. It’s like Buck Rogers going analog to fight the enemy spaceships.

Use this guide to help you clarify, and then verify:

1. There should be a consistent, synchronized process throughout the interview, like one hand knowing how the other parts move. Deepfakes have subtle movement patterns unnatural to the human eye. Out of place mannerisms.

2. All communication from different individuals within the company should flow through a single channel. With few exceptions, everyone should use the company email extension, not a Gmail or a radically different email address.

3. Appearance is deceiving, and you can’t assume you are seeing things. Actual companies are explicit in what you should expect in communication and presentation. They, too, are making sure you’re a real person, and have put things in their process to ensure you’re real.

4. Be blunt. This is not easy to do, but if there is reason for suspicion, a company, HR, or recruiter shouldn’t have a problem proving credentials. In many cases, LinkedIn can be a good way to vet companies. You can also use independent channels (links outside the company’s communication) to verify and legitimize.

5. I know a few job seekers who physically visit the company’s location. Think of it as checking out the neighborhood before bidding on the house. Verify the address on Google and check Yelp for any complaints about the company.

6. Check Google, Glassdoor, or complaints and reviews about the interview process. I understand people may be hesitant to use social media channels, but patterns are hard to refute.

7. Prioritize verifiable contacts who are responsive and consistent. The one person you are always in contact with is the one to thoroughly verify. Once you notice “scammy behavior” and they aren’t who they said they were, disengage as fast as you blink.

Let’s go beyond the surface

Trust and urgency are the factors that lead victims to fail to spot and avoid deepfakes. Most companies, especially now, are not rushing to hire. It’s possible it will happen, but employers are copycats. If one starts hiring quickly and in large numbers, others will follow. While there is hiring, it’s at a slow, deliberate pace.

If you can insert the following into your job search strategies, I think you’ll not only be safer, but move with more efficacy:

Question Assumptions

Don’t accept everything at face value. If something feels off during an interview, disengage. Stop and ask, “Why doesn’t this question make sense to me? “ Or, “Why are you asking for my personal information during the first/second interview?”

Analyze Patterns

Look for inconsistencies in communication, mannerisms, or background details. Deepfakes may miss subtle cues that real people naturally display. Here are some visual signs (S/O to Kerry Tomlinson, friend of the show):

• Unnatural face movements like a wobbly jaw or facial expression normal person couldn’t make. Teeth appear as a natural bar and not as a collective of individual teeth.

• Note whether the motions match the emotion, especially when the interview's mood or context is light, and the facial expression shows anger.

Look for cloned voices

Voices can be copied and placed on people, animals, or robots. Certainly, they can be used in job interviews too. Here are anomalies to look for:

• Slurring or unintelligible words. Sometimes, the deepfake character will use an accent, and unless you’re a linguist, even the accent is a dead giveaway.

• You should also listen for robotic artifacts, unnatural pauses that are either too long or too short, and high-frequency background cracking noises that sound like an old radio or walkie-talkie.

Other signs this interview or the interviewer might be fake

• Check if the jewelry, glasses, or hair displays anomalies such as mismatched glasses, half-missing frames, necklaces embedded into the skin, or hair attached to nothing.

• Deepfake backgrounds are frequently blurry, unformed, or completely different on either side of the head.

We will all need to regularly assess whether what you see and hear is credible and verifiable. Seeking supporting evidence before drawing conclusions is a required practice, as is approaching situations with critical discernment.

Another tool I think is helpful is sharing your experiences and observations with others. Collaborative thinking can help uncover issues not obvious on your own.

By applying these strategies, your job search is better equipped to detect and respond to deepfakes in interviews. Most of all, it will be safer and more strategic because of your preparation.