Job scams create hiring risk for Australian businesses

By Lauren Anderson, Workplace Expert at Indeed

Job scams are no longer the obvious, poorly written emails many Australians were once taught to ignore. Today, they are polished, persuasive, and increasingly difficult to distinguish from genuine recruitment processes. And for entrepreneurs and SMEs competing for talent in a tight labour market, the impact is no longer limited to job seekers alone.

New research from job site Indeed shows that one in two Australian workers (50%) have received a suspicious job advertisement in the past year, with nearly one in five (18%) targeted three or more times. Alarmingly, three in five workers (59%) who engaged with a fake job ad report ultimately falling victim.

The consequences are significant. Nearly half of those targeted (49%) say they lost time through extended communication with scammers, 22% had personal information stolen, including identification and banking details, and 11% lost money through upfront fees or fake training costs. Scamwatch reports Australians lost approximately $18.5 million to job and employment scams in 2025 alone.

For small and medium businesses, this can impact recruitment as job seekers who have been exposed to scams become more cautious, slower to respond, and more sceptical of legitimate opportunities. Seven in ten Australians (69%) say their experience with job scams has made them more cautious when applying for roles, while nearly three-quarters (72%) worry they, or someone they know, could be targeted.

In practical terms, this means longer hiring cycles, increased friction in candidate engagement, and greater pressure on employers to prove legitimacy in every interaction.

Job scams are becoming more effective because they now mirror the recruitment practices of legitimate businesses. Instead of poorly constructed messages, scammers replicate real job ads, use stolen branding from trusted platforms and employers, and in some cases conduct staged interviews to build trust over time. The goal is no longer to trick people instantly, but to gradually normalise the interaction until personal or financial information is handed over.

This shift is driven by two key factors: rising demand for flexible income and advancements in technology, including AI tools that allow scammers to scale and refine their approach. With 40% of Australian workers considering a job change, scammers are exploiting an active, motivated audience.

Younger Australians are particularly vulnerable. Gen Z workers (70%) and Millennials (64%) are significantly more likely than older generations to fall victim to fake job offers. Men are also twice as likely as women to lose money (16% compared to 7%), highlighting how widely these scams can cut across demographics.

For employers, the reputational risk is just as real as the financial one. When fake ads circulate under the name of trusted platforms or brands, confidence in the broader hiring ecosystem is eroded. Candidates begin to question whether legitimate outreach is genuine, especially when communication moves quickly or outside standard channels.

That trust gap is now one of the most important challenges in recruitment. Hiring is, at its core, a high-trust activity. Candidates are expected to share personal information, engage with unknown contacts, and move through unfamiliar processes. Scammers exploit exactly this dynamic, creating urgency, exclusivity, and credibility at each stage.

The result is that many job seekers only realise they have been targeted once significant time or personal data has already been lost.

The good news is that awareness is improving. More than half of workers (52%) who encountered a suspicious job ad reported it, either directly to the platform (42%) or to authorities such as Scamwatch or police (19%). This reporting plays a critical role in disrupting scam networks and protecting others.

For businesses, there are clear signals worth reinforcing across hiring practices. Legitimate employers will never request upfront payments for training, equipment or onboarding. They will not pressure candidates to move quickly or communicate outside secure platforms early in the process. And they will not request sensitive personal or financial information before formal employment stages.

When those boundaries are blurred, candidates are right to pause.

The responsibility now sits with both platforms and employers to reinforce what safe recruitment looks like. But it also sits with job seekers to slow down, verify roles, and trust their instincts when something feels inconsistent.

Job scams are not simply a consumer issue. They are a market confidence issue. The more convincing these scams become, the more vigilance is required from individual job seekers and the businesses trying to hire them.

Because in a labour market where trust is already fragile, even one fraudulent interaction can shape how people approach every opportunity that follows.

Author Bio

As Indeed Australia's Talent Strategy Advisor and Workplace Expert, Lauren Anderson works with businesses to innovate traditional recruitment processes, get creative with employer branding and prioritise diversity and equity in the workplace. Motivated by achieving results, you’ll find Lauren at industry-leading events, round tables, webinars and client strategy turning large amounts of hiring data into insights people can actually use.