Scams to watch out for if you’re offered a job
Written and accurate as at: Jul 14, 2025 Current Stats & Facts
Have you ever received a job offer that seemed too good to be true? Maybe it promised generous pay for relatively easy work. Or maybe it teased the possibility of working just a few hours a week whenever or wherever you please. Tempting as these offers might be, they’re very often traps.
These days, scammers can target anyone, but job hunters – who might be so eager to land a role that they overlook important warning signs – can be particularly vulnerable.
Scammers might reach out to people directly via text or WhatsApp messages, or they might post an ad on a legitimate job site and wait for potential victims to come to them. Whatever the means, the goal is always the same: earn victims’ trust and exploit them for financial gain, or worse.
Below, we explore some of the most common types of job scam, and what you can do to avoid them.
Task-based scams
These scams draw people in by promising flexible hours and guaranteed income for completing simple online tasks, like rating products and liking videos. To build trust, scammers set up fake websites that display your real time ‘earnings,’ and you might even receive a small initial payment – often in cryptocurrency – to make the job seem legitimate.
As the scam progresses, you’ll be encouraged to top up your cryptocurrency account to unlock higher-paying jobs. By this point, you might have been added to a group chat filled with phony testimonials from other ‘workers,’ all carefully crafted to create a fear of missing out.
The scammers will keep stringing you along until you get suspicious or try to withdraw your earnings, at which point they’ll make off with the money and you’ll likely never hear from them again.
Money mule scams
Sometimes job scams can be more sinister, as in the case of money mule scams. These pose as simple administrative roles where you earn a commission for transferring funds on behalf of a company. But in reality, these jobs are fronts for laundering stolen money or financing other criminal activity.
Essentially, victims are used as unwitting intermediaries, helping criminals avoid detection by the authorities by passing funds through their own personal bank account.
And what’s most alarming is that even if you were oblivious to what was actually going on, you can still be held criminally liable. This can carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
Red flags to watch out for
As always, the best protection against scams of this type is a healthy dose of scepticism. Scammers are counting on victims getting caught up in the excitement of a potential job offer and hitting the off switch on part of their brain that would usually tell them to stop and take a step back.
Specifically, here are a few signs that should set off alarm bells in your head:
- The job promises very good pay for little work or suspiciously few hours
- The job requires an initial investment or payment on your part
- You’re offered a job without an interview or any discussion of your suitability
- You weren’t asked to provide a resume
- You’re asked to set up an account on a cryptocurrency platform
- The employer avoids answering basic questions about the company or the work involved
Beyond this, don’t assume job ads are real just because they appear on a well-known platform. Scammers can post fake ads that make it past websites’ screening processes.
And if you get an offer that seems a bit suspicious, try to verify that the company is real, and the representative that reached out to you actually works there.
In 2023 alone, Australians lost more than $24 million to job-related scams – triple the amount recorded in the previous year. That sharp jump is worrying, but awareness can go a long way towards bringing the number of victims back down. By staying alert, asking the right questions, and not rushing into anything you don’t understand, you can save yourself a lot of stress and financial pain.
