Recruitment scams impersonating your company: what employers should do

When scammers pose as your company's recruiters, do four things: publish a page on your own site that says how you really recruit (which email domain you use, that interviews are never text-only, that you never ask candidates for money), report the fake profiles, postings and lookalike domains to the platforms and registrars, report the scheme to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's IC3, and give your team a standard reply for candidates who ask. Impersonating a business is a violation of the FTC's Impersonation Rule, in effect since April 1, 2024, and the FTC says people reported losing nearly $1 billion to business impersonators in 2025. Facts here are as of October 2026.

This page is about scams aimed at job seekers using your name. For fraud aimed at you by fake candidates, see how to spot candidate identity fraud.

How do fake recruiter scams using a real company's name work?

The scammer borrows your name because candidates trust it. The FTC's April 30, 2026 consumer alert, "That job offer text is probably a scam", describes fake recruiters who "claim to be with legit companies you might know", advertise remote work, and ask people to reply "YES" or "INTERESTED" instead of clicking a link. The common patterns:

• Unexpected texts and chat apps. Outreach by text, WhatsApp or Telegram, often followed by an "interview" conducted entirely in chat. The FTC says real employers "will never contact you that way."
• Task scams. "Online work" rating products or liking content, where the victim must deposit money, often cryptocurrency, to unlock earnings. The FTC's December 2024 data estimated task scams were nearly 40 percent of 2024 job scam reports.
• Fake checks and equipment. A "new hire" is sent a check to buy equipment or training from a named vendor, then asked to send money on. The FTC's job scams guide warns that the check "is fake and will bounce", and that people end up paying for starter kits, training or certifications that are useless.
• Identity harvesting. A convincing "offer" followed by onboarding forms asking for a Social Security number, bank details and photos of ID.
• Lookalike domains and profiles. Email from a domain one letter off yours, a careers site cloned from your real one, or social profiles copying your recruiters' names and photos.

The scale is large. The FTC reported on March 10, 2025 that reports about job scams and fake employment agencies tripled from 2020 to 2024, with reported losses rising from $90 million to $501 million, and on June 15, 2026 that people reported losing nearly $1 billion to business impersonators in 2025.

What does the law say about impersonating a company?

The FTC's Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses (16 CFR Part 461) makes it "an unfair or deceptive act or practice" to "materially and falsely pose as, directly or by implication, a business or officer thereof", or to materially misrepresent an affiliation with, endorsement by or sponsorship by a business. The FTC announced that the rule went into effect on April 1, 2024, giving it stronger tools against impersonators, including seeking money back for consumers in federal court.

Two practical consequences for an employer. First, the people harmed are usually candidates, and the agencies that act on reports are the FTC and law enforcement, so your reports feed the cases. Second, being impersonated does not usually make you responsible for the scam, but how you respond shapes how candidates see you. Say clearly and quickly that it was not you, and never promise refunds or outcomes you cannot deliver.

What should you publish so candidates can check?

The single most useful step is a short page on your own website, linked from your careers page and every job posting, that candidates can find when they search your name with "scam". Include:

• The only email domain your recruiters use, and that you never recruit from free email accounts.
• How interviews happen: by phone or video with named people, never as a text-only chat.
• That you never ask candidates to pay for anything, buy equipment, deposit a check or move money.
• When you collect sensitive details (Social Security number, bank account) and through which system: only after a formal written offer, through your HR system.
• Where your real openings are listed, so candidates can check a role exists.
• An address for reporting suspicious contact, and the FTC and IC3 reporting links.

RECRUITMENT FRAUD WARNING

People pretending to be [Company] recruiters are contacting job seekers.
Here is how our hiring really works:

- Our recruiters email only from @[company domain].
- Every opening is listed at [careers URL]. If it is not there, it is not ours.
- Interviews are by phone or video with named members of our team.
  We never interview by text message, WhatsApp or Telegram alone.
- We never ask you to pay for anything, buy equipment, deposit a check
  or send money, at any stage.
- We ask for bank and tax details only after you accept a written offer,
  through our HR system.

If you are unsure whether a message is from us, forward it to
[security or recruiting address]. Report scams to the FTC at
ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at ic3.gov.

How do you protect your email domain and brand?

• Authenticate your email. Gmail's sender guidelines have required senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts to set up DMARC since February 1, 2024, and note that DMARC "tells receiving servers what to do with your messages that don't pass SPF or DKIM." A policy of "none" only monitors. Work with IT toward quarantine or reject so mail spoofing your exact domain is filtered. DMARC does not stop lookalike domains, texts or chat apps.
• Find lookalike domains. Look up suspicious domains in ICANN Lookup, which shows registration data such as the registrar and, often, when the domain was created; report the abuse to that registrar. For a domain built on your trademark, WIPO's domain name dispute service runs the UDRP, which applies to domains in .com, .net, .org and other generic top-level domains.
• Report fake profiles. LinkedIn's help page on reporting fake profiles includes a "This person is impersonating someone" option. Ask your recruiters to report copies of their own profiles, and check your company page's employee list for strangers.
• Report fake postings on each job board where they appear, with a link to your real careers page.

What should you do when a candidate reports a scam?

1. Reply the same day. Confirm whether the contact was from you, using the template below.
2. Collect the evidence: email addresses with full headers, domains, phone numbers, profile links, posting links, screenshots, any payment details the scammer gave. Ask the candidate for permission to keep them.
3. Point the candidate to the right places: ReportFraud.ftc.gov, ic3.gov, and IdentityTheft.gov if they shared a Social Security number or ID. If they sent money, they should contact their bank or payment provider at once.
4. Report and request takedowns with the platforms and registrars, and file your own report with the FTC and IC3.
5. Warn your own team. Recruiters, reception and the switchboard will get calls; give them the template.
6. Update the warning page with the specific names, domains or job titles being used.
7. Log every incident in one place, so patterns (the same domain registrar, the same fake job title) are visible.

Reply template

Subject: The message you received was not from [Company]

Hi [Name],

Thank you for checking with us. The [email / text / message] you received
from [sender] was not sent by [Company], and the role it describes is not
one of our openings.

Our recruiters only contact candidates from @[company domain], we never
interview by text or chat app alone, and we never ask candidates to pay,
buy equipment or deposit checks.

If you shared personal or financial information, please:
- contact your bank or payment provider now if you sent money,
- report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI at ic3.gov,
- visit IdentityTheft.gov if you shared your Social Security number or ID.

Our real openings are at [careers URL]. If you would like to apply for one,
we would be glad to hear from you.

[Name], [Company] Recruiting

How do you make your real outreach easy to tell apart?

Scams work best against companies whose genuine process is inconsistent. Agree house rules and hold every recruiter and hiring manager to them:

• First contact comes from a named person at your domain, or through your applicant tracking system.
• Every interview is a scheduled call or video meeting with a calendar invite; the interview calendar invite template shows what to include.
• Offers arrive in writing from your domain or HR system; see the job offer email template.
• Bank, tax and ID details are collected only after acceptance, through the HR system, never by email or chat.
• Candidates hear what to expect at each stage, so a scammer's deviation stands out. The application acknowledgement email template is a good place to state it.

Staffing agencies are impersonated too, sometimes alongside a client's name. Agencies should run the same steps and tell affected clients promptly, because candidates will contact the client as well. Treat a candidate's report as a service to you; the candidate experience guide covers why the tone of that first reply matters.