Guarantees a job.

A job description should not say that it is guaranteed because a legit company has expectations and qualifications that need to be met. A legitimate company may interview many candidates and may have multiple interviews. This is especially true for a high-paying job.

You should not be able to receive a job offer right away without putting effort to receive it.

Personal information is requested before any interviews

Requesting personal information over email

If you did not interview or are currently interviewing, there is no good reason for a company to email or call you to ask for your personal information SSN, driver’s license, date of birth, or bank information.

Scammers often ask for personal information over email or a phone call because it is a quick and easy way to collect information from someone and it is harder to trace back to the scammer.

Requesting personal information over the job application

Keep in mind that online job applications may ask for personal information like SSN (often last 4 digits) and date of birth to effectively track applicants and reduce multiple submissions from one candidate. Some candidates may submit the same job application using different email addresses or phone numbers. However, job applications should not ask for bank information.

If you do not feel comfortable sharing this information then simply skip these job applications.

Requesting information after receiving a job offer

It is common for companies to ask for personal information after receiving a job offer to do a thorough background check.

Require payment

In no way should a company ask for payment to interview or before accepting a job offer.

Some common reasons they ask for money are an application fee, registration fee, upfront fee, interview fee

This includes cashing a check, wiring money, and Zelle. These payment collections may be difficult or even impossible to reverse.

Even payment for a company laptop may be a scam. If not, it would be a red flag for a company not to work with because the company cannot afford to pay laptop expenses.

It may be common for a company to request money after accepting a job offer for legit reasons like H-1B premium processing

If a company were to require you to pay for expenses (e.g. background check), they would often deduct it from your first paycheck.

The email address is not professional

A scammer would want to hide their identity so they use easy-to-get personal email addresses like @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, and @hotmail.com.

Communication is not professional

Communication by email

Emails that have issues with spelling and grammar may indicate the person is not from the US and does not speak well. A legitimate company would put someone in charge who communicates well and leave a good impression because they represent the company.

It is common for scams to originate from another country to reduce their chances of being caught and dealing with consequences.

Communication over the phone

The recruiter is persistent and demanding.