Beware: 5 Job Advertisement Scams Designed to Trick You

There are evil people who want to take your money when you’re most vulnerable: unemployed and looking for a job

When I first lost my job, I felt deeply hurt. Even though I knew layoffs were coming - I did the math for the company that showed our business dying - I was still surprised when I was unemployed.

I was very vulnerable. Desperate. Weak. That’s when the scams started, and I fell for them. Cunning, smart people who dedicate themselves to stealing money and data. I question their life choices, yet they do exist.

Please protect yourself by looking out for these four common employment scams. Please tell us when you find more. I want everyone to be protected from these fraudsters.

Table of Contents

1. LinkedIn Recruiter Scams

2. Pig Butchering Scams

3. Ghost Job Advertisements

4. Data Theft Job Ads

5. Wired Job Opportunities

LinkedIn Recruiter Scams

The moment you choose to let everyone see that you’re Open to Work on LinkedIn or use the #OpentoWork hashtag in a post, the LinkedIn recruiter scam bots will swarm you.

You’ll get many comments on your posts and Direct Messages from profiles that seem at first glance to be legitimate recruiters. They are not.

Profiles with few connections, minimal past job details, and too-good profile photos are all signs of a fake recruiter profile. They will usually ask you to ‘improve’ your resume by using a paid service - this should be a big sign it's a scam!

Best to only show you’re OpentoWork with recruiters and companies using the LinkedIn Recruiter app. Look in the LinkedIn profile settings for this toggle switch. It will not add the OpenToWork frame around your photo.

Pig Butchering Scams

Pig butchering is a type of long-term scam, which usually combines the various forms of catfishing and investment frauds, in which the victim is gradually lured into making increasing contributions till they are broke.

This scam is common on SMS, Email, Telegram and WhatsApp. It has now arrived on LinkedIn.

Profiles of pretty women dressed for a night out, living in an exotic location, highly educated with impressive financial credentials. Yet zero followers and zero posts? It's a trap!

The text is meant to be generic yet compelling. The imagery is aspirational. They are hoping you'll respond. If you do - boom!

Please don’t fall for this timeless scam.

Ghost Job Advertisements

Ghost jobs are roles posted publicly that give the impression the company is actively hiring, even though they have no intention of ever hiring for that role.

Researchers say there are five reasons why a company posts ghost jobs

1. Market visibility: They signal to investors or competitors they're expanding.

2. Market research: Understanding salary expectations or skillsets without hiring anyone.

3. Capturing resumes: Gathering candidate information for future hiring needs.

4. Misleading employees: Falsely reassure employees of new staff to help them

5. Replacing employees: Ensuring employees feel replaceable.

Any of those reasons are reprehensible, yet ghost jobs are surprisingly common. Research from Harvard Business School, CNBC, and Resume Genius show that:

• 40% of hiring managers admitted posting ghost jobs in 2024.

• 22% of jobs listed on hiring platform Greenhouse were ghost jobs.

• 1.7 million jobs on LinkedIn alone are potentially ghost jobs.

Ghost jobs are hard to spot, since companies work hard to make sure that they look real. They may even do cursory activities to make their own staff think these are active recruitments.

However, you will want to check if the job posting is older than one month, not cross-listed on the company’s own website, or repeatedly re-posted when you do a Google search.

Data Theft Job Ads

Joel Levesque found that AI recruitment companies are mining your personal data to build their products while providing little to no real job opportunities in return.

His experience is harrowing. He spent about an hour applying to an exciting opportunity on LinkedIn, and immediately afterward, he was directed to do an interview. It was an AI interviewer that asked insightful questions, followed up logically, and seemed genuinely interested.

But then came the "oh" moment.

After he finished the application he was welcomed onto a platform to explore opportunities. Whops! There was no original job. This platform was designed solely to mine his verbal responses, facial expressions, and even browser behaviors to train an AI algorithm.

Companies like Mercor, micro1, and Pesto Tech are conducting thousands of AI-driven interviews simultaneously to support their billion-dollar valuations - without a real job opportunity for you or anyone else.

You as a candidate are left feeling exploited, frustrated, and disposable. Do not fall for this data theft!

Wired Job Opportunities

Here is a scam that is also an opportunity - if you are the lucky candidate.

Many hiring managers write a job description with a specific person in mind. Someone they know, or heard of, that can help them with their problem. You want to be that person. You want to do so many informational interviews that you’ve either talked to the hiring manager or most of their peers.

If you are not who the hiring manager is thinking about, you can be wasting your time applying for a role you’ll never get.

Here are five ways to know if this job is wired for someone or not:

1. The Dream Job Opening: Too Good to Be True

When a job description feels like it’s been plucked straight from your career bucket list, take a moment to scrutinize it. Jobs that sound too good to be true often are.

In reality, such postings are often crafted with a specific individual in mind—someone already within the organization or a trusted external consultant. The “perfect match” vibe could be because the role was tailored for that person.

While organizations are required to post job openings publicly, the process can sometimes serve as a formality rather than a genuine search for candidates. Don’t be discouraged if you apply and yet never hear back. It’s not necessarily about you—it might be about internal politics.

2. The Blink-and-You-Miss-It Application Window

One of the biggest red flags that a job is wired for someone else is a very short application window. For instance, a position that’s only open for seven days screams exclusivity.

Most organizations aim to attract a diverse pool of applicants, which takes time. Short windows suggest that they’re not really looking for candidates—they’re fulfilling an internal requirement to publicly advertise the job before offering it to their preselected choice.

Unless you’ve been following the organization closely and can drop everything to craft a stellar application on short notice, the odds aren’t in your favor. Don’t waste time chasing a role that’s already spoken for.

3. Highly Specific Requirements: The Unicorn Candidate

Some job descriptions read like they’re searching for a mythical being.

• A PhD in public health and donor fundraising expertise?

• Fluency in three rare languages and experience in software development?

• Documented team leadership skills but only 5 years experience?

These overly narrow qualifications might not reflect the actual needs of the position but rather the unique profile of a pre-selected candidate.

This tactic is common in organizations that need to justify their hiring choice by pointing to a highly specific skill set. By crafting the job requirements to fit their preferred candidate, they minimize the risk of being challenged during the hiring process.

If you meet the qualifications, go ahead and apply. But if you find yourself wondering whether you’re “enough” for the role, it’s likely because the bar was set to exclude most applicants, not to identify the best one.

4. Location-Specific Constraints: The Must-Be-Here Clause

In a world where hybrid and remote work have become the norm, location-specific job postings can be a red flag. If the posting insists the candidate must work in a specific office that’s outside most metropolitan areas, it can be a covert way of narrowing the applicant pool.

Location-specific requirements don’t necessarily make sense in 2025. Insisting that a hire be physically present in one office suggests that the organization already knows who they want—and that person lives nearby.

If you’re willing to relocate and meet the qualifications, don’t hesitate to apply. However, understand that this could be another sign of a wired job.

5. Logical Next Step: Promotion as an Open Search

Have you ever read a job description and thought, This sounds like a natural next step for someone already in the organization? That’s because it often is. Wired jobs frequently serve as promotions in disguise, designed to elevate an internal candidate from a junior or mid-level role to a more senior position.

These postings often feature language that mirrors the responsibilities of the candidate’s current job, with a few additional duties tacked on for good measure. The organization can point to the posting as evidence of an open search while quietly advancing their internal succession plan.

If you’re an external candidate, this dynamic can be incredibly frustrating. The game might already be rigged. Manage your expectations and focus on opportunities where you have a real chance.