Spot Job Scams Before It Spots You - 5 tips

Let's start with some facts:

• Prevalence: Employment scams are currently ranked as the second riskiest type of scam globally, only behind investment scams. In 2023, employment scams rose by 54.2% compared to the previous year.
• Financial Impact: The median financial loss associated with employment scams is approximately $1,995, which is significantly higher than the overall median loss of $100 reported across all scam types. In simpler terms, job scams cause much bigger financial losses on average compared to most other types of scams.
• Demographic Targeting: Scammers primarily target individuals aged 18 to 35, who represent about 60% of Africa's population. This age group is particularly vulnerable as they often seek their first jobs or are in the early stages of their careers.

Recent Occurrences in Africa:

• In 2023, a company named "Learnania" came out of nowhere and scammed the unsuspecting. (Read about it here)
• Last year, Africope came with another well-polished scam. They were nabbed early enough and that saved many.
• 2025, It's a matter of "when" not "if'. So, spot them before they spot you.

After Africope got exposed, I suddenly became an "Investigative Recruiter" with requests to verify whether a job or company was a scam trooping to my DM. Alas, I can't do that, It's not sustainable. But this post can help.

Usually, perpetrators of scam jobs are not smatter than job seekers but they play on people's desperation. So, as you go about your job hunting this year, let these 5 tips be your guide. (I will also include examples of loopholes that exposed Africope)

Too Good to Be True Offers

Scammers know how to bait their victims with promises of ridiculously high salaries, minimal responsibilities, and unrealistic perks. For example, There's usually a promise of overrated salaries. However, for Africope, what gave them away wasn't an outrageous salary, but too many applicants passed the test. For a company that was just starting, with no traces of funding on the internet, that was too good to be true.

Most times, If it's too good to be true then it is what it is.

Requests for Upfront Payments

A common tactic among scammers is to ask for money under the guise of training, equipment, or background checks. Sandwiched in the hiring process is always a request to make some financial commitment. Similar to Learnania and Africope, they created an external website and codedly redirected people to that website for paid certificate verification.

Always remember—real opportunities don’t come with a price tag.

Lack of Company Transparency

If a company doesn’t provide clear details about who they are, what they do, or their physical address, it’s a major warning sign. For Africope, it was a fake LinkedIn page, Fake staff, fake clients, fake address. Even the website was only quickly arranged. Thanks to way back machine that revealed when the website was launched plus snapshots of some pages of the website at different points in history.

The Wayback Machine on web.archive.org is a digital archive that allows users to explore and access snapshots of websites and their content from various points in history.

High-Pressure Tactics

Scammers thrive on urgency and they try to create fear of missing out (FOMO). They want you to make decisions quickly, without time to think or verify their legitimacy. Learnania and Africope asked people to either get transcripts from their universities or pay their agency to process them at a ridiculous rate. plus the timeline for submission was so short that most people won't meet up if they use the university route.

A credible company will respect your time and give you the space to review terms properly.

Unprofessional Communication

Pay close attention to how a recruiter communicates with you. Poor grammar, unprofessional email addresses, or overly generic messages are all red flags. Some would even claim you got the job without without interview.

Trust your gut. If something feels off about the way they communicate, don’t ignore it.

There is a long list of tactics but the bottom line is not to allow desperation to override your analytical mindset, for you can't be scammed if you are not desperate.

I will round up with this, employment scams can lead to financial and identity theft, kidnapping, rape, and even death. As risky as it is, the menace is underreported.

As such, here are a few more ways I would love to help.

1. Posts like this to raise awareness and stimulate more people.
2. Share some genuine websites/recruitment agencies to follow for genuine job opportunities.
3. Importantly, I will share an online directory, where people can report employment-related scams. This might not be a perfect solution but it will be a step further in raising awareness. At least people can have a directory to check if there have been any reported scams related to any employment engagement.

Remember to contact me for any of these services.

• Resume Writing and Interview preparation (I help job seekers get more interviews and land their dream job eventually)
• LinkedIn Profile Optimization (Optimize your LinkedIn to drive your career growth and attract more opportunities)
• Career Counselling (What next in your career and how to navigate through different phases)
• Recruitment