The check cleared and the money was in my account. Doesn't that mean it was good?

No, and this is the single most important thing to understand about these offers. Banks often make funds from a deposited check available to you before the check has actually been paid by the bank it was drawn on. Available is not the same as settled. When the check is eventually returned as bad, the amount is taken back out of your account — including anything you already spent or forwarded on, which becomes money you owe.

Is it ever normal to pay for your own equipment before starting?

Buying your own laptop for a contract role happens. Being told to buy from one specific vendor the recruiter names, and being sent money to do it with, does not. Real employers either ship you equipment, add you to their own procurement system, or reimburse a receipt after you've started and been properly onboarded. The named vendor in these offers is controlled by the same people making the offer.

How do I check whether a recruiter actually works where they say?

Go to the company's website yourself by typing the address, not by following a link in the message, and find their careers page. If the role isn't listed there, that's a strong signal. Then contact the company through a phone number or address published on their own site and ask whether the person and the role exist. A real recruiter will not mind this at all.

They want my Social Security number and bank details for payroll. Is that normal at this stage?

Not before you have a written offer you accepted and real onboarding through the employer's own systems. Payroll details are collected after hiring, usually in a portal on the company's own domain, not over chat or in an emailed form. If you've already sent these, treat them as exposed: contact your bank about the account details and consider a fraud alert or credit freeze with the credit bureaus.

← Is This A Scam?

Job Offer and Recruiter Scams

An offer arrives for a job you didn't apply for. The pay is good, the work sounds easy, and nobody wants to interview you. What they want is either a payment from you or a check you'll deposit.

These work on hope rather than fear, which makes them harder to shake off. Nobody wants to be the person who talked themselves out of a good job. So the offer is built to be just plausible enough that walking away feels like the risky choice.

There is one reliable line through all of it: money should only ever move towards you, and never back out again.

What one of these looks like

It usually starts as a text or a direct message rather than an email:

Hello, we came across your resume online. We are hiring remote Data Entry Assistants, $38/hr, flexible hours, weekly pay. No experience needed. The interview is conducted over Telegram. If you are interested reply YES and our hiring manager will onboard you today.

Every detail is doing a job. A resume they saw somewhere explains how they got your number. The rate is high but not absurd. "No experience needed" removes the reason you might rule yourself out. And the interview being on a chat app means you will never see a face, a building or a company system.

Red flags to look for

You didn't apply. The message references your resume vaguely, without naming where it was posted or which role you supposedly applied for.
The entire process lives in a chat app — Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, or plain text. No video call, no phone call, no meeting.
You're hired almost immediately, with no real questions about your experience and nothing you had to be good at to get it.
The pay is described as an hourly rate for work with no stated responsibilities, no manager named, and no job description you could repeat back to someone.
You're asked to buy equipment, software or training from a specific vendor they name, with the promise of reimbursement. The vendor is theirs.
A check, transfer or mobile deposit arrives before you've done any work, and you're asked to keep part of it and send the rest somewhere.
Contact comes from a free email address, or a domain that's a near-miss of the real company's — one extra word, a hyphen, or a different ending.
You're asked for a Social Security number, a bank login, or photos of your ID before there's a signed offer or any onboarding on the company's own systems.

Cleared is not cashed

The fake check version of this deserves its own explanation, because people who know it's a scam still fall for it. You deposit the check. A day or two later the money shows in your balance and you can spend it. That feels like proof, and it isn't.

Making funds available and actually collecting them from the other bank are two different events, separated by enough time for you to buy the "equipment" or forward the "overpayment". When the check comes back bad, your bank reverses the deposit. The money you sent onwards is gone, and the hole it left is yours to fill. This is why the script always includes urgency about buying something today.

How to check an offer before you engage

1Don't reply yet. Replying mainly confirms your number is live and that you're interested, which moves you up their list.
2Look up the company yourself. Type their address into the browser rather than following any link in the message, and see whether the role appears on their own careers page.
3Find the recruiter independently — on the company's site or a professional network — and check that the name, the role and the company actually line up. Scammers reuse the names of real employees.
4Ask for a video call with the hiring manager, and for the offer on company letterhead from a company email address. Genuine hiring survives both requests. This one usually stops answering.
5Refuse every request to pay, buy, deposit or forward anything. There is no legitimate job where your first task involves your own money.
6If a check or transfer has already arrived, don't spend or move any of it. Tell your bank where it came from and why you're suspicious, and let them tell you when it has genuinely settled.

Got a job offer that came out of nowhere?

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The variants worth knowing

Some offers never mention a check. Instead you're given "tasks" in an app — rating products, completing orders — and shown a rising balance you have to top up to keep unlocking. That is the same withdrawal trap covered in our guide to crypto investment scams, wearing a job as a disguise. Others are package-reshipping roles, where the goods you forward were bought with stolen cards and the shipping address in your name is the point.

If an onboarding link was sent to you, read the address before you open it — our guide on checking a suspicious link shows where the real domain hides. And if you've already paid, deposited or shared documents, our reporting guide sets out what to do first and where to file.

Common questions

The check cleared and the money was in my account. Doesn't that mean it was good?: No, and this is the single most important thing to understand about these offers. Banks often make funds from a deposited check available to you before the check has actually been paid by the bank it was drawn on. Available is not the same as settled. When the check is eventually returned as bad, the amount is taken back out of your account — including anything you already spent or forwarded on, which becomes money you owe.
Is it ever normal to pay for your own equipment before starting?: Buying your own laptop for a contract role happens. Being told to buy from one specific vendor the recruiter names, and being sent money to do it with, does not. Real employers either ship you equipment, add you to their own procurement system, or reimburse a receipt after you've started and been properly onboarded. The named vendor in these offers is controlled by the same people making the offer.
How do I check whether a recruiter actually works where they say?: Go to the company's website yourself by typing the address, not by following a link in the message, and find their careers page. If the role isn't listed there, that's a strong signal. Then contact the company through a phone number or address published on their own site and ask whether the person and the role exist. A real recruiter will not mind this at all.
They want my Social Security number and bank details for payroll. Is that normal at this stage?: Not before you have a written offer you accepted and real onboarding through the employer's own systems. Payroll details are collected after hiring, usually in a portal on the company's own domain, not over chat or in an emailed form. If you've already sent these, treat them as exposed: contact your bank about the account details and consider a fraud alert or credit freeze with the credit bureaus.

This page is informational and we aren't affiliated with any company or agency named on it. We can't tell you whether your specific message is genuine. Verify independently: open the company's official app or type their website address yourself, and call the number printed on your card, statement, or the back of your ID — never a number supplied by the message.

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