Check an offer for warning signs

What happened?

• They asked you to pay: a fee, a deposit, training, a uniform, a medical, a visa, or equipment.
• They asked for your bank card, PIN, a one-time code, your BVN, or the login to an account.
• They sent you money or a cheque and asked you to send some of it back, or to buy something with it.
• The work is rating products, liking posts or doing tasks online for pay. You must pay in your own money before you can take out what you earned.
• They offered you a job you never applied for, or offered it before any interview.
• They only talk by WhatsApp, Telegram or text message, or pushed you to move the conversation there.
• The email comes from a free address (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) rather than the organisation's own web address.
• The web address is slightly different from the organisation's real one, or you cannot find the offer on its own website.
• The pay is far above what the work would normally pay, for little experience.
• The job title is vague, or the experience asked for is a huge range (for example 2 to 15 years).
• The interview is in an odd place: outside a building with no sign of the organisation, a hotel room, a private house, or somewhere far with no reason given.
• They press you to decide or pay today.

Check

Where the signs come from

The signs come from these pages on job scams, and from our own rule that no job listed on Qualify asks for money.

• US Federal Trade Commission: How to spot the latest job scamsRecruiters who push you for money, ask for personal details up front, or write from a free email address.
• US Federal Trade Commission: Job scammers are looking to hire youBank details asked for early, a free email address, and pressure to move fast.
• US Federal Trade Commission: How to spot and avoid task scamsBeing paid to rate or like things online, then told to deposit your own money.
• US Federal Trade Commission: The bottom-line on fake checks scamsA check sent to you with a request to send some of the money back.
• Jobberman: Fastest ways to identify fake jobs in NigeriaAsking for money, a job you never applied for, an SMS and nothing else, free email addresses, no job title or a very wide experience range. It is written for Nigeria and says it was last updated on 8 February 2022.
• LinkedIn: Recognize and report scams (LinkedIn Help)Payment or account details asked for, an offer too good to be true, checks and transfers, a push to WhatsApp or Telegram, and free email addresses.

We opened and read each page on 10 October 2026. The US pages are written for people in the US, and the signs hold anywhere.

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