Rise in reports of ‘shameful’ recruitment scams

Jobseekers are being warned to watch out for scammers after complaints about job or recruitment fraud more than doubled in two years, new figures suggest.

Action Fraud received 4,876 reports in 2024, compared with 2,094 in 2022, according to data obtained by the BBC.

Industry experts have described how criminals have advertised fictitious jobs to try to con jobseekers out of money or personal information.

The government said it was an “absolutely shameful” crime, which saw “vicious fraudsters take unfair advantage of innocent job seekers”.

Anna, who does not want to be identified, applied for a job that was advertised on a legitimate website, but had to pay £280 for an HR course.

She was then asked to create a job advert and post it on her own social media to appear as a recruiter, before passing on the names and email addresses of those who applied to her new bosses.

The scammers were also asking those candidates to pay a fee for a course, she said.

Anna told the BBC: “Within a few days, I was asked to supply details of 16 new candidates every day, or 80 a week.

“After the first week, I realised what was going on. The recruitment process was just the cover-up story to get hold of those details,” she added.

Anna said at first they appeared convincing and always had an explanation when she questioned them.

“I had a job interview and received some initial training, and they came across as genuine,” she said.

“The lack of information, especially the limited details on their website, was consistently explained by the fact that they were a start-up still developing their systems and online presence. “

Sean Neary has been running an engineering recruitment agency in Knutsford, Cheshire, for nearly a decade, but says his firm is still being impersonated by scammers, nearly three years after first raising his concerns.

“We’re still getting daily calls about this,” he said. “It’s still happening at scale.

“We have a very strong reputation we’ve built over the last nine years, to have that damaged with people impersonating our company is disappointing.”

He said he was concerned that jobseekers would find it difficult to tell a genuine approach from a scam.

“There are tell-tale signs that you can see with the approaches of the scammers but it’s not always easy for candidates to see,” he added.

It is not only jobseekers being targeted. About 18 months ago, bosses at a Kent farm were first alerted to the fact that scammers had started advertising fictitious jobs at their business.

“We would get emails from individuals who’d responded to a job advert, which had purportedly come from us,” said Stephen Taylor, managing director of Winterwood Farms in Maidstone.

“These were jobs at high level, these weren’t picker or farm jobs, these were more senior roles,” he added.

Mr Taylor told BBC South East people contact the farm at the stage when they believe they are about to start the job, or when scammers are trying to extract a fee from them.

“They’re either genuinely asking to clarify some conditions because they found our real contact details on the web, or they’re beginning to suspect that everything might not be as it should be and they’re contacting us to confirm it’s genuine,” he said.

Scammers have used WhatsApp, text messages, emails and job boards to contact jobseekers with fake offers of employment.

Some fraudulent adverts can be highly convincing, mimicking legitimate job postings, according to Clive Phillips, a Trading Standards manager at Kent County Council.

“They use fake job listings posing as legitimate recruiters with offers sent by text, WhatsApp or email to steal money or to obtain personal information that is sold on to other criminals,” he said.

“Key signs of suspicious adverts include unrealistic salary offers, vague job descriptions, requests for personal information or money up front and unprofessional communication.”

Jobseekers are advised to be wary, check that the organisation actually exists and make sure the contact details are genuine before sharing any information.

The average amount lost per report to Action Fraud was £4,707 last year.

Keith Rosser, chair of JobsAware, which advises workers about scams, said the Online Safety Act required platforms to perform effective due diligence and remove scams from their sites.

“However, the act is relatively new and progress is mixed,” he added.

Lorraine Laryea, chief standards officer at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said it was a “concern” that scammers were “targeting a sector that takes great pride in finding good jobs for people”.

“Jobseekers should not have to pay to get a job,” she said. “This is because recruiters should never ask for payment to find them work. This is illegal.

“Challenge any attempt by someone posing as a recruiter to do so.”

An Action Fraud spokesperson said: “If someone is contacting you out of the blue from an unsolicited email or messages online, it could be a fraudster trying to steal personal or financial information.

“Avoid paying upfront or administration fees, legitimate employers will not ask for money upfront.

“You can protect yourself online by ensuring your accounts each have strong, secure passwords and enabling two-step verification (2SV).”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “As part of this government’s monumental Plan for Change, work is under way on a new, expanded Fraud Strategy.

“We continue to work closely with private industry, law enforcement and tech companies to tackle these criminal networks head on and prevent online fraud, including recruitment scams.”

You can report a scam text message by forwarding it to 7726 which spells out SPAM on a keypad. If it’s a spam email, forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk

WhatsApp has advice on how to protect yourself from scams on its website.