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You might be a spouse who’s PCS’d to a new location or a servicemember getting ready to retire — and you’re probably eyeing new career possibilities. You know where to look for a job, but do you know how to recognize the signs of a job scam?

Know that scammers advertise jobs and business opportunities online in ads, on job sites, and on social media.

  • Are they asking you to pay for a job? Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job. Anyone who does is a scammer. Honest employers also will never send you a check and then tell you to send them part of the money. That’s a fake check scam.
  • What do you know about them? Search online for the name of the company or the person who’s hiring you, plus the words “scam,” “review,” or “complaint.” You might find out they’ve scammed other people.
  • Are those reviews real? Success stories and testimonials might not be true or typical. Glowing stories of success could be fake or misleading, and positive online reviews may have come from made-up profiles.
  • What does a trusted friend or loved one think about the offer? Take some time to talk to someone you trust about ads for jobs or business opportunity offers. And learn more at ftc.gov/jobscams.
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MCM 2024 job scams
Topics
Jobs and Making Money
Jobs
Scams
Job Scams

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

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