Fake Job Postings Using Your Company's Name: How to Spot Them, Report Them and Protect Applicants

Criminals regularly post fake job ads and pose as recruiters under the name of a real company, then use the "hiring process" to collect applicants' Social Security numbers, bank details or money for fake equipment and background checks. If it happens to your business, you are not the one being robbed, but your name is, and your phone will ring with confused or angry applicants. The practical response: search for impersonations regularly, report each one to the job site and to the FTC and FBI, publish an official careers page with a clear "how we hire" notice, lock down your email domain with DMARC, watch for lookalike domains, and have a calm, prepared answer for people who were fooled.

What the scam looks like

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) described the pattern in a February 2022 public service announcement: scammers "spoof legitimate companies to post fraudulent job postings" on employment networking sites, copying real postings, changing the contact details and reusing company logos and even the identities of actual employees.

The FTC's April 2026 consumer alert describes the current version: fake recruiters who "claim to be with legit companies you might know," contacting people by text, WhatsApp or Telegram, and then finding reasons for the applicant to send money, often with a fake check.

Common features:

• The job is remote, pays well and requires little experience.
• The interview happens by text or chat app, sometimes with no call at all.
• An offer arrives fast, followed by a request for a Social Security number, a driver's license photo and direct deposit details.
• The new hire is asked to pay for equipment, software or training, or to deposit a check and send part of it back.
• The email comes from a free webmail account or a domain that looks almost like yours.

The FBI's advice to job seekers is the clearest test: legitimate companies ask for personal and banking information for payroll after hiring, not before.

Why it matters to your business

Even though applicants are the direct victims, the company being impersonated pays a price: lost trust from candidates and customers, time spent answering calls and emails, and a brand associated with fraud in search results and reviews. If the fake recruiter uses an email address that appears to come from your real domain, it also signals that your domain can be spoofed, which is a broader email security problem.

How to find fake postings and recruiters

The FBI recommends that employers "proactively search for fraudulent job postings under your business name on common networking sites." Build it into a monthly routine:

1. Search the major job boards for your company name, including misspellings and your name plus "remote."
2. Search LinkedIn for company pages using your name or logo and for profiles claiming to work at your company that HR does not recognize.
3. Search the web and social media for your company name plus "hiring," "job offer" or "recruiter."
4. Ask HR and your receptionist to log every call or email from someone asking about a job you never posted. These calls are often the first warning.
5. Check for lookalike domains (see below).

Keep a simple log: date, platform, link, screenshot and what you reported. You will need it if the same people come back.

How to get them taken down and reported

The platform

Every major job board and LinkedIn has a report option on job postings, company pages and profiles. Use it, choose the fraud or impersonation reason, and include a link to your real careers page. If the platform offers verified employer accounts or controls that limit who can post under your company page, turn them on; the FBI also advises employers to "enable options to block unauthorized posts and require secured verification."

The FTC and FBI

• ReportFraud.ftc.gov: the FTC asks people to report job scams there. The FTC's Government and Business Impersonation Rule, in effect since April 1, 2024, lets the agency take scammers who impersonate businesses to federal court.
• IC3.gov: the FBI asks victims to report and to include the website where the job was posted and the company being impersonated.

Your report helps, but so do victims' reports, so point applicants to both sites.

The domain or email provider

If the scammers use a lookalike domain, look up the domain's registrar and hosting provider and send each an abuse report with your evidence. If they use a free webmail account, report it through that provider's abuse process.

Make the real process easy to recognize

Scammers succeed when applicants cannot tell what your real process looks like. Fix that publicly:

Publish an official careers page

List every open position on your own website, and say clearly that if a job is not listed there, it is not real. Link to that page from your LinkedIn company page and your email signatures.

Add a "how we hire" notice

A short notice on the careers page, in English and Spanish for South Florida applicants, for example:

We will never ask you to pay for equipment, training or a background check. We do not conduct interviews only by text, WhatsApp or Telegram. Job offers come only from an @yourcompany.com email address. We ask for bank and Social Security information only after you are hired, through our payroll system. If you are unsure, call us at the number on this website.

Adapt it to your actual process, and then make sure your real recruiters follow it every time.

Stop scammers from sending email as you

If the fraudulent emails appear to come from your actual domain, your email authentication is incomplete. SPF, DKIM and DMARC let receiving mail servers verify that a message really came from you, and a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject tells them what to do with messages that fail. Our guide on SPF, DKIM and DMARC walks through setting this up without breaking your legitimate mail.

DMARC protects your exact domain only. It does not stop someone from registering a lookalike, which is why the next step matters.

Watch for lookalike domains

Lookalike domains swap letters (rn for m), add words ("-careers," "-hr," "-jobs") or use a different ending (.co instead of .com). Practical steps:

• Register the most obvious variations of your domain yourself, especially the ".com" and "careers" versions.
• Set up monitoring. Many security tools and registrars offer alerts for newly registered domains similar to yours, and public certificate transparency logs show new SSL certificates issued for names containing your brand.
• Act fast when a match appears: document it and file abuse reports with the registrar and host.

When applicants contact you

Sooner or later someone will call saying they "already started working for you." Prepare your team:

1. Be calm and kind. The person was deceived using your name.
2. Confirm clearly that the offer did not come from your company and that you never charge applicants.
3. Point them to help: ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IC3.gov to report, and IdentityTheft.gov if they shared their Social Security number or ID documents.
4. Ask for copies of the posting, emails and messages to support your own reports, but never ask for their personal data.
5. Do not promise refunds or speak to legal liability; refer those questions to your attorney.

A short written script in English and Spanish keeps answers consistent.

Quick checklist

• Monthly search of job boards, LinkedIn and social media for your name.
• Report every fake posting to the platform, ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IC3.gov.
• Official careers page with a bilingual "how we hire" notice.
• SPF, DKIM and DMARC at enforcement.
• Lookalike domain monitoring and defensive registrations.
• A response script for HR and the front desk.

Brand impersonation sits where IT, HR and marketing meet, and small businesses rarely have someone watching it. Our cybersecurity services include DMARC setup, domain monitoring and phishing awareness for businesses in Miami-Dade and across South Florida, in English and Spanish. Request a free IT assessment and we will check how exposed your name and domain are.

Sources

• Scammers Exploit Security Weaknesses on Job Recruitment Websites to Impersonate Legitimate Businesses, I-020122-PSA (FBI IC3)
• That job offer text is probably a scam (FTC Consumer Alert, April 30, 2026)
• Job scams (FTC Consumer Advice)
• FTC Announces Impersonation Rule Goes into Effect Today (FTC, April 1, 2024)
• ReportFraud.ftc.gov (FTC)
• Internet Crime Complaint Center (FBI IC3)
• IdentityTheft.gov (FTC)