How to check if a job offer is real

A real offer for contract, gig, freelance or AI-training work can be traced to the company itself: the same role and the same recruiter appear on the company's own careers page, and nothing in the process asks you to pay. Honest employers never ask you to pay to get a job, the FTC says, and a fee anywhere in the process ends the question.

Confirm the recruiter through the company's careers page

Start from the company, not the message. Type the company's name into your browser, open its own careers page, and look for the same role and the same recruiter there. Don't use a link, phone number or email address from the message you received. If the role isn't listed, treat the offer as unconfirmed until it is.

Some platforms name the one address their recruiters write from: HopSkipDrive and Veho both do, and the list further down has them. An offer from any other domain isn't theirs.

The fakes copy real names. Amazon reported in Oct 2025 that scammers were posing as Amazon recruiters and selling resume-review services, and that employment-impersonation reports rose 90% in Jan to Mar 2025. The FTC's April 2026 alert describes fake recruiters who text about remote jobs in a known company's name, then ask for money through fake checks or task deposits.

The person has to be real too. A Las Vegas woman told a local news station about a 'homeowner' on HouseSitter.com who offered $600 for four hours of work a day, avoided every call and meeting, and gave an address that turned out to be a house for sale.

If you'd rather search yourself, the FTC points to USAJOBS, CareerOneStop and USA.gov's local government sites as safe places to look.

What real contractor onboarding asks for

A real payer and a scammer both ask for your Social Security number, so the request alone tells you nothing. What differs is when and where. A platform that reports your pay to the IRS collects your number on a Form W-9, which the IRS says payers use to request a U.S. person's taxpayer identification number. Hipcamp is a typical case: it may request a W-9 and can deactivate a property without one, and never asks for tax info by email.

The fake version arrives early and outside the platform. Impersonators ask for a driver's license, SSN or bank account number for 'employment paperwork' before answering your questions about the job, the FTC warns, sometimes in a staged 'onboarding' session.

Two checks that look similar are real. Employers may run a background check when you apply, and you have rights when they do. And platform ID checks are normal: DataAnnotation verifies ID through Persona, at no cost to you.

Employer checks that ask you to send money back

A legitimate employer never asks you to deposit a check, keep part and send the rest on. The FTC's examples show how ordinary the setup looks:

• Personal assistant: a check arrives, and the 'boss' asks you to buy gift cards and send the PINs, which the scammers use instantly.
• Mystery shopper: the first assignment is to evaluate a store that sells gift cards, money orders or wire transfers, with a check to deposit and part to send on.
• Equipment: the check is to buy supplies for the job, with the rest sent back.

On Care.com, the version to know is a family who offers to send a check before the job starts.

What happens when a job check is fake

The check can be a real one drawn on a stolen-identity account, and it can look genuine even to bank staff. The money can show in your account quickly, but the bank can take weeks to find the fraud, and then you owe it back. Don't spend check money unless you know and trust the sender.

Reshipping and money-moving jobs are scams

These jobs pass for admin work. Reshipping roles are often advertised as virtual personal assistant or quality control manager jobs; the packages are high-priced goods bought with stolen cards, and the 'employer' vanishes with the personal details you gave for payroll.

Money-moving offers now borrow real platform names. Guardio, a security firm, reported in Sep 2026 that scammers impersonate Outlier and DataAnnotation, clone their dashboards and sell fake account access to recruit money mules. It notes that Outlier itself is legitimate: the fake is the account someone sells you.

How to check if a job offer is real before you accept

Run these checks before you give any personal detail or do any unpaid work. One failed check is enough to stop.

If an offer fails, report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov; for fake checks, the FTC also lists the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and your state attorney general.

Where real platforms recruit

The companies that publish their recruiting rules say the same things: no fees, one official sign-up path, and recruiters who write from the company's own domain. Some also name the fakes. Taskrabbit warns about a fraudulent site, taskrabbithire.com.

A marketplace membership is not a fee to get a job. Sitters on TrustedHousesitters pay an annual membership to join, and the platform says it is not an employer: you're paying to list yourself, not to be hired.

For the other scams aimed at gig workers, sellers and survey takers, start with How to spot side-hustle scams.