How to spot a fake job offer before you apply

A message arrives on WhatsApp: a recruiter from a well-known company has seen your profile, there is an opening that fits you perfectly, and they can fast-track your interview. All you need to do is pay a small registration fee.

Job scams like this are common in India, and they target tech job seekers in particular: people who are actively looking, who share their phone number and resume widely, and who are used to recruiters reaching out first. The good news is that almost every scam shows the same few warning signs.

Seven warning signs of a fake job offer

1. You are asked to pay. A genuine employer never charges a fee for an application, an interview, training, a laptop, a background check or an offer letter. Any request for money, however small or however it is described, is the clearest sign of a scam.
2. The offer comes without a real interview. An offer after a short chat on WhatsApp or Telegram, or after a "test" that was just a form, is not how tech companies hire.
3. The email address does not match the company. Recruiters at real companies write from the company's own domain. Be wary of Gmail, Outlook or look-alike domains such as company-careers.in or companyhr.co.
4. They want personal documents or OTPs early. No one needs your bank details, PAN, Aadhaar or a one-time password before a formal, written offer. An OTP is never part of a hiring process.
5. The pay is too good for the role. A salary far above the market for your experience, for very little work, is bait.
6. There is pressure to decide now. "Only two seats left" or "the offer expires tonight" is designed to stop you from checking.
7. The job is not on the company's careers site. This is the easiest check of all, and the most reliable.

Check every job on the company's own careers site

Before you apply, and certainly before you share anything personal, find the role on the employer's own careers site. Search for the company's name and "careers", open its official website, and look for the same job title and location.

If the job is there, apply through that page, not through a link someone sent you. If it is not there, ask the recruiter for the job ID and check again. A genuine recruiter will understand; a scammer will usually push back or go quiet.

This is also why Brightspark collects most of its jobs straight from employers' own careers sites, and labels each job with where it came from. Jobs from open job boards are labelled too, because anyone can post on those.

Look up the recruiter

A real recruiter usually has a LinkedIn profile that names the company, with a history and connections that make sense. You can also call the company's official phone number (from its website, not from the message) and ask whether the person works there.

If a recruiter will not tell you their full name, their company email address or the job ID, treat the offer as fake.

What to do if you are targeted

• Stop replying, and do not pay anything or share more information.
• Keep the evidence: screenshots of messages, email headers, payment requests and phone numbers.
• Report it. In India, report cyber fraud at cybercrime.gov.in or call the national cyber crime helpline, 1930. Also report the account or posting to the platform it came from, such as LinkedIn, WhatsApp or the job board.
• If you have paid, call your bank straight away and ask it to block the transaction, and report it on the helpline as soon as possible: the sooner you report, the better the chance of stopping the money.
• If you shared documents, watch your accounts closely and change any passwords you may have given away.

The short version

A real employer never asks you to pay, never asks for an OTP, and always has the job on its own careers site. If you check those three things before you apply, you will avoid nearly every job scam.