Is this job offer or recruitment message a scam?

The upfront-fee version, the task-and-commission version, the money mule version, and the checks that identify all three before you have lost anything.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 10 min
Read: 3 min
Safety: warning

Short answer

A genuine employer never asks you to pay to start work, never recruits entirely over WhatsApp or Telegram, and never asks for your bank details before you have a signed contract with a named company you have verified. If the job involves receiving money and sending it on, walk away — that is money laundering and the criminal liability lands on you.

Recruitment fraud has grown quickly because remote work made a job offer arriving by message unremarkable. Three shapes cover almost all of it: pay us to start, do small paid tasks then top up your account to unlock bigger ones, and let money pass through your account. The third is the one that puts people in a police station.

Safety

Two versions of this cause serious harm beyond the money. One asks you to pay for training, equipment, a DBS check or a visa, and the payment is the fraud. The other pays you to receive and forward money, which makes you a money launderer under UK law regardless of what you were told. Never pay to be given a job, and never let your bank account be used to move someone else's money.

Step by step

Verify the company independently.Look it up on Companies House, find its own website by typing the address, and ring the switchboard number published there to ask whether the recruiter and the vacancy exist. Never use contact details from the message.
Check the recruiter is who they claim.A recruiter using a free email address rather than a company domain, or a domain that is one character different from the real one, is the commonest single tell. Read the address character by character.
Refuse to pay for anything.Training, uniforms, equipment, software, a criminal record check, a visa fee, an "onboarding" charge. UK employers pay for these or deduct them lawfully from wages. Paying up front is the fraud itself.
Recognise the task-and-commission version.You are paid small amounts for simple online tasks — rating products, boosting listings — then told you must deposit your own money to unlock a higher tier. The early payments are real and are bait. Everything after the deposit is gone.
Refuse anything that moves money through your account."Payment processing", "financial agent", "receive client funds and forward them minus your commission". This is a money mule role. Your account will be closed, you will be recorded on a national fraud database for years, and it is a criminal offence.
Do not hand over documents early.Passport, driving licence, National Insurance number and bank details belong at the point where you have a contract with a verified employer. Sent earlier, they are an identity theft kit.
Check the interview is real.An interview conducted entirely by text on a messaging app, with an immediate offer and no video call, is not a recruitment process. Genuine employers speak to you.
Report it.Report to Action Fraud, or Police Scotland on 101 in Scotland, and to the platform the advert appeared on. If a real company is being impersonated, tell them — they usually have a page about it already.

Tips

Job scams cluster where people are most under pressure: entry-level remote roles, care work, driving, and anything advertising unusually high pay for unskilled work.
If the offer arrives on WhatsApp or Telegram from a number you have never dealt with, treat it as advertising, not recruitment.
Genuine recruiters will happily wait while you verify them. Any refusal to let you ring the company's published switchboard settles the question.

Common mistakes

Treating a professional-looking contract as evidence — Contracts, letterheads and employee handbooks are copied wholesale from real companies. The document proves nothing about who sent it.
Accepting a cheque or transfer and forwarding part of it — The incoming payment is reversed or is stolen money. The forwarded part is yours, and the money laundering offence is yours too.

Questions people ask

They are using a real company's name — does that make it safer?

No. Impersonating a well-known employer is standard, because it makes the offer credible and because the real company's website supplies all the detail needed to sound authentic. Verify through the company's own switchboard.

I already paid for training. Can I get it back?

If you paid by card, ask your card issuer about chargeback and, for larger amounts, Section 75. If you paid by bank transfer, report it to your bank as authorised push payment fraud immediately.

I let money pass through my account before I understood. What now?

Stop immediately, do not send any more, contact your bank yourself and tell them what happened, and report it to Action Fraud. Coming forward voluntarily matters, and there is a separate guide here on where you stand.