How To Tell if a Recruiter Is Fake?

Working with recruiters can be very hard. And one of the hardest things to do is find a recruiter who can help you find a job. The first thing you need to do is decide if the recruiter is fake or not.

If you connect with a recruiter who does not have the ability to help you find work, then you’re just wasting your time. And that’s not something that anyone should be doing when job searching.

One of the main problems when dealing with recruiters is determining if they are fake or not. You might not believe it, but there are a lot of recruiters out there that are simply scammers. If you engage with them, you are at best wasting your time and at worse putting yourself into a bad situation.

Issues such as identity theft and other serious problems have been known to happen when dealing with fake recruiters.

So, how can you tell if you are dealing with a fake recruiter or a real one? Well, that’s what this article is for.

I’m going to walk you step by step on how you can tell if the recruiter is fake or legit.

Check Their LinkedIn Page

The first thing you should do when checking out a recruiter is to look at their LinkedIn page. Are they someone who has a professional photo? Do they list the company they work for? Are they connected with other professionals who work at the same recruiting firm?

If the recruiter has a professional headshot and they are listed as being a recruiter at a major recruiting firm that has a real online presence, then you can feel confident that they are a recruiter.

The trouble comes when you see people who don’t have LinkedIn pages, or else they do not list the company they work for. In those instances you are likely to be dealing with fake recruiters.

Sometimes you have to go even further down the rabbit hole and look into the company. You want real recruiters who can place you with a real job, you don’t want government recruiters who work in large work to welfare organizations, where you will be processed into a program and won’t get a job.

The important thing to take away here is that you need to find a recruiter who has a real LinkedIn page. If they don’t, then it’s a major red flag. Why would you ever deal with a recruiter who did not have a LinkedIn profile? LinkedIn is the major tool for recruiters, so when you see someone who claims to be a recruiter and they do not have a believable LinkedIn profile, you know they are scamming.

Verify The Company They Work For

Once you’ve connected with a recruiter, the next thing you need to do is make sure that they are who they say they are.

Normally if a recruiter is listing their company on LinkedIn, then that’s a good proof that they are real. When a person lists a particular company on their LinkedIn profile, the company will get a notification that they are doing so. If the person doesn’t work there then it will raise a flag with their internal Marketing team.

LinkedIn isn’t like Facebook or Instagram or most other social media sites where people can claim to have any fake job they want. It’s a bit more strict with that. The company gets alerts and if the person doesn’t work there they can have them removed.

However, sometimes the marketing team isn’t watching the analytics or not paying attention and so you still get people who slip through and create fake profiles.

In these cases the best way to try and verify that the recruiter is legit and not a scam. You can do this one of a few ways.

One way is to call the recruiting company itself. Now, that’s normally not going to lead to any real results because recruiting agencies do not like to deal with cold calls. They will simply direct you to a company website.

Another method is to try and get the recruiter to email you using a company email. If they have access to a company email then you can rest assured that they are a real recruiter who has a legitimate job and is not a scam of some sort.

Does The Recruiter Have Reviews Online?

Another great way to tell if the recruiter is real is to check their online reviews. Sites like Google and Yelp are a good start. If the recruiter has reviews then you can be comfortable that they are not fake.

Places like Google and Yelp are the two most popular places to check out recruiters. There are also other places that you can check out recruiting agencies, including Indeed and Glassdoor.

However, just because a recruiter has bad reviews, it does not necessarily mean that they are not a good recruiter. Oftentimes the loudest voices are the ones who are angry they can’t find work. Many recruiters with stellar reputations don’t have a lot of good reviews online because they work on confidential placements and do not solicit reviews.

However, if the recruiter and the agency do not have any reviews, then it’s likely that they might be a scam. It’s common for fake recruiters to use cheap job posting sites and send out fake job notices to get gullible people. One of the best ways to avoid this is to do your due diligence and look into the recruiters before you actually start working with them.

You Can Always Call The Company To Confirm If The Recruiter Is Legit

Like we’ve discussed, you can always try and call the company. Here’s the problem. Most reputable recruiting agencies do not take unsolicited call ins.  If you are dealing with a recruiter, then you should try and connect with them on LinkedIn and get their company email and their contact phone number.

You can setup a Zoom call with them to determine if they are who they say they are. It’s unlikely that a fake recruiter would be able to speak with you on the phone without giving away their scam.

On the other hand, a real recruiter is always going to want to speak with you on the phone. This is because recruiters want to make sure that the people they are dealing with are not flakes. In fact, many recrutiers will want to facetime you because they want to vet you.

It’s a two way street, it should never be a one way line of communication when you are dealing with a recruiter.

If the recruiter does connect with you and request that you have a Zoom interview with them, then you’re dealing with someone who is serious. In some instances they might be a flake, but the odds of them being fake or running a scam are much less. If you’re looking for some tips on how to handle a Zoom interview with your recrutier, you can brush up on the topic here.

How Did The Recruiter Contact You?

Real recruiters use LinkedIn. If you are working in an executive role or working in a professional setting, then your recruiter should be using LinkedIn.

If you get a message from a recruiter on LinekdIn, then you know it’s most likely legit.

For non-professional roles such as nursing and manual labor, recruiters will call directly or perhaps email or text. This is because LinkedIn is not as widely adopted in the blue collar world.

If you are not sure how the recruiter connected with you and if you’re suspicious of it, ask them to clarify. If they do not want to clarify or if they cannot clarify then it’s a problem. If a recruiter doesn’t call you back, it might be that you’re not a good fit for a role, but if they won’t call back once you start asking questions about the role then it could be indicative that you are dealing with a scam.