Email copy
Fake job offers, for job seekers
For job hunters, who can least afford to lose money.
- For
- Workforce and job seekers, Universities, Newcomer communities
- Status
- Reviewed
- Version
- 2026-09-01
Subject line
A job should never cost you money
Fake job offers are aimed at people who need work quickly. Here is what they look like.
The rule that catches nearly all of them: a real employer never asks you to pay to start. Not for equipment, training, a background check, or a starter kit.
Watch out too for an offer that arrives only by text or chat and moves straight to your bank details or your ID.
One trick deserves its own warning. You are sent a check, told to deposit it and send part of the money on. It can sit in your balance for days before the bank finds the check is fake, and then the bank takes all of it back, including what you sent. Anyone asking you to do this is scamming you.
Forward the offer to us at [YOUR EMAIL] and we will look at it before you reply.
Still to fill in: [YOUR EMAIL]. Replace it before you send this.
Before you send it: If you invite forwards, tell people not to include their own ID documents in the email.
Before you distribute this
- Use it: Job club emails, career-center newsletters, and campus mailings.
- Replace every bracketed placeholder with your organization's own details.
- Open every web address yourself before printing it.
- Current warnings live at watchout.report. Check the date on anything time-sensitive.
Cybersecurity Reach Foundation · cybersecurityreach.org · Current warnings: watchout.report
General safety information. CSRF is not a crisis, legal, banking, safeguarding, or law-enforcement service.