Fake Job Offers: Official Warning Signs for Newcomers
A job offer is a scam if it asks you to pay to get the job, sends you a check to deposit and asks you to send part of the money on, or offers you a "job" receiving and reshipping packages, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Before you accept a job offer, the FTC suggests looking up the company or person hiring you and describing the offer to someone you trust.
Which job offers do the official pages call scams?
The FTC job scams page describes several patterns.
- Paying to get a job. "If someone asks you to pay to get a job, that's a scam." Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job.
- A check you deposit and partly send on. Scammers post fake job ads for nannies, caregivers and virtual assistants, or send emails that look like they are from someone in your community. The person who hires you may send a check and tell you to deposit it, keep part for your services and send the rest to someone else. "A legitimate employer will never ask you to do that."
- Reshipping packages. Ads for quality control managers or virtual personal assistants can turn into a "job" repackaging products and reshipping them to an address the company gives you, sometimes overseas. "Reshipping goods is never a real job."
- Easy money from home. "If someone offers you a job and claims that you can make a lot of money in a short period of time with little work, that's almost certainly a scam."
- Placement services that want money up front. Honest placement firms do not typically charge job candidates, because the hiring company pays them. If a placement firm asks you to pay, especially in advance, the page says to walk away.
- Ads promising government or postal jobs. Information about federal and U.S. Postal Service openings is free, and it is always free to apply. The page says: "Never respond to an ad that promises jobs with the federal government or postal service."
What to check before you accept an offer
The FTC suggests searching online for the name of the company or the person hiring you, plus the words "scam," "review," or "complaint." Having no complaints does not guarantee that a company is honest, but complaints can tip you off to possible problems. Talking the offer over with someone you trust also gives you time to think about it.
The FTC also warns that if you gave a fake reshipping company your personal information "thinking it was for payroll, you may now have an identity theft problem." The USAGov scams page says imposters can pretend to be from the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, a business, or a charity, and that "These scammers want you to trust them so they can steal your personal information and money."
Why a deposited check can still be fake
The FTC page on fake check scams explains that fake checks generally look just like real checks, even to bank employees. By law, banks have to make deposited funds available quickly, so seeing the money in your account does not mean the check is good. "Fake checks can take weeks to be discovered and untangled." By then the scammer has any money you sent, and you are stuck paying the bank back. Its examples include fake mystery shopper and personal assistant jobs. Its advice: "Don't rely on money from a check unless you know and trust the person you're dealing with."
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If you already paid or shared information
No matter how you paid, the FTC says to immediately contact the company you used to send the money, report the fraud, and ask to have the transaction reversed, if possible. You can report a job scam to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general. For stolen personal information, the USAGov scams page points to how to report identity theft.
What these pages do not cover
The cited pages are general consumer pages and do not speak to newcomers or immigration status separately. They do not say whether a particular offer is real, and the fake check page notes that ways to try to get money back depend on how you paid. It also says a reversed wire transfer is unlikely, but that it is important to ask.
Where to look next
For job searches, the FTC job scams page points to USAJobs.gov for federal openings, to CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, and to USA.gov for local government websites, while the USAGov scams page helps you find where to report a scam by answering a few questions.
About this page
This page is general information drawn from official consumer pages and does not assess any individual case. A question about your personal situation belongs with an independent attorney; see also our guide on finding authorized immigration help.
VisaNow.AI is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. This page is general information taken from official government pages; it does not assess anyone's case. An attorney-client relationship arises only with an independent attorney. Check the official pages for current details.
Information current as of 2026-10-30