The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report logged over 22,000 complaints involving AI-enabled fraud, including deepfake video interviews and voice-cloned recruiters. Remote job scams no longer rely on bad grammar and obvious red flags. They mirror legitimate hiring processes step for step, which means the old advice about “trusting your gut” isn’t enough. What follows are specific verification techniques you can apply to any opportunity before you hand over a single piece of personal information.
Check the Email Domain Before You Respond to Anything
The very first message you receive from a recruiter tells you more than most people realize. A legitimate company will contact you from their company domain, something like sarah@examplewebsite.com. Scammers almost always use free providers like Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook because registering a company domain creates a traceable trail. A subtler version uses domains that look nearly identical to the real company, like @example-website.com or @examplewebsite.co instead of .com. Before you reply, type the company’s name directly into your browser, find their actual website, and compare the email domain character by character.
Verify the Listing on the Company’s Own Careers Page
One of the most effective scam formats right now involves copying a real job posting word for word from a legitimate company and reposting it on a job board under that company’s name. The listing reads as authentic because the original language is authentic. You can dismantle this in about 90 seconds. Go to the company’s official website, navigate to their careers page, and confirm the role exists there. Then call the company’s main phone number (found on their website, never from the listing) and ask HR to confirm the position and the name of the recruiter who contacted you. Scammers count on the fact that almost nobody makes that call.
Know When Personal Information Should and Shouldn’t Be Requested
The timing of information requests during hiring follows a predictable, legitimate sequence. A real employer asks for your resume during the application stage, asks skills-based questions during interviews, and only requests your Social Security number, banking details, and government-issued ID after you have received and signed a formal written offer, typically on or after your start date. Any request for that information before a written offer is a deviation from standard practice. Scammers compress this timeline deliberately, often requesting banking or identity documents during what they frame as “onboarding paperwork” before you’ve formally accepted anything.
Pay Attention to the Interview Platform
Established companies conduct interviews over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. When a recruiter asks you to interview on Telegram, WhatsApp, or a platform you’ve never heard of that requires downloading unfamiliar software, that choice is intentional. These platforms offer anonymity and make it significantly harder to verify the recruiter’s identity or trace the conversation.
Look at How They Collect Your Application
Professional companies use applicant tracking systems like Greenhouse, Lever, or Workable to collect and manage applications. These platforms have a consistent look and feel, and they route through the company’s official careers page. A Google Form asking for your resume, phone number, and address, or a request to email your application materials directly to a personal email account, suggests the listing exists outside of any real company’s hiring infrastructure.
Why We Built HireMyMom the Way We Did
At HireMyMom, we screen every employer manually before a listing goes live and do our very best to weed out any potential scams. We research the business, check for complaints, and reject anything that doesn’t meet our standards, because we know the moms on our platform don’t have time to run a five-step fraud investigation on every job they find. Browse jobs that have been vetted.