Jobseekers exploited by scammers on LinkedIn - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Job seekers are noticing an increase in recruitment scams on LinkedIn. (REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

Tony Young is one of many Australians who have applied for work using websites like LinkedIn, only to realise afterwards it was a scam.

The former tech executive has sent out applications for more than 400 jobs over the past three years.

While responding to a job advertisement on LinkedIn, Tony was contacted by someone claiming to be a consultant who could help improve his resume.

When he refused, the "consultant" quickly lowered their offer and asked Tony whether he would "do it for $50".

The ABC has observed an uptick in fraud targeting jobseekers as soon as they update their online status to indicate they are looking for work.

Sophisticated employment fraudsters target jobseekers as soon as they announce their unemployment. (ABC News)

It includes fake job ads, fraudsters posing as recruiters with "cloned" profiles and people taking advantage of desperate jobseekers by offering to help with CV writing for significant sums of money.

Australian jobseekers are being warned about this pervasive, sophisticated employment fraud as recruiters voiced concerns to the ABC and in online forums about fake advertisements flooding recruitment websites.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in just two months, July and August 2026, it received 138 scam reports relating to LinkedIn with reported losses of up to $254,449.

Tony said he often received emails or comments on his online posts that seemed to be from companies purporting to be "hiring" on LinkedIn.

In June, he received an email from a so-called "career and talent leader" at engineering consultancy Aurecon who wanted to have a "senior leadership discussion" with him.

Tony says he often receives targeted emails and comments.  (ABC News)

The ABC can confirm that no-one from Aurecon actually contacted Tony.

In addition, the person who emailed Tony had cloned a LinkedIn profile belonging to a real employee from the engineering firm.

Aurecon said it was aware that fraudsters sometimes misused its brand name to deceive jobseekers through fake job emails, fraudulent websites or unsolicited job offers.

The company stressed that it conducts formal virtual or in-person interviews before making offers and would never ask candidates to make any up-front payments.

LinkedIn's latest Job Search Safety Pulse report has found Australians are more vulnerable to recruitment scams than ever.

Nearly half of the people surveyed for that report said they would take risks when applying for jobs due to ongoing cost-of-living pressures.

More than a third said they would be more likely to let their guard down.

Questioning whether a job is "actually real" has also become a routine part of the job search, according to the LinkedIn report.

The same report found 61 per cent of Australians had seen a job ad that they suspected was fraudulent and 27 per cent have come close to falling for one.

Around 16 per cent of the respondents said they had fallen victim to job scams.

For younger gen Z jobseekers, born between 1997 and 2012, employment scam victim percentages rose to 25 per cent.

"Recruitment scammers often pretend to represent large companies or recruitment firms and will contact people either directly through LinkedIn or via email with a job opportunity that is tailored to the information on their LinkedIn profile," an ACCC spokesperson said.

They said "job scams may ask people to pay money to start a job" or participate in a "course or training".

Trevor Churchley says scam activities on LinkedIn have become more noticeable in the past two years. (LinkedIn: Trevor Churchley)

Tech recruiter Trevor Churchley said scam activities on LinkedIn had become more noticeable in the past two years.

Mr Churchley said he was personally aware of several real profiles being "taken over or cloned".

He said the fake profiles were then used to target jobseekers who publicly disclosed they were unemployed.

"They're the perfect target to approach because … all of a sudden, they gain the attention of recruiters … hopefully leading to jobs," Mr Churchley said.

Many applicants place the #opentowork banner on their LinkedIn profiles, hoping to become more visible to recruiters.

Jobseekers attract attention from recruiters and scammers once they put an #opentowork banner on. (Supplied)

But these jobseekers have also been attracting attention from scammers pretending to be recruiters, Mr Churchley said.

Mr Churchley warned of red flags including recruiters based in unusual locations and having no followers or connections.

He said they were not easy for genuine jobseekers to spot as they are often desperate for work.

He has also warned that no legitimate companies would contact their candidates with @gmail.com, @outlook.com, or @hotmail.com email addresses.

Red flags in job scams are hard for genuine jobseekers to spot since scammers often target desperate applicants. (ABC News)

A spokesperson from LinkedIn said "scams of any kind are against our policies" and the company takes "proactive action to detect and remove" the majority of spam and scam content on its website automatically.

"We're continuing our investment in free verifications for identities, jobs, recruiters and company pages to provide trust signals about the people and opportunities on LinkedIn," the spokesperson said.

"More than 115 million members are now verified, with 75 members verifying every minute, and over 81 per cent of all job views on LinkedIn are for verified jobs."

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) noted there are many social media and online networking platforms "where criminals circulate fake job advertisements and attempt to engage potential victims", without providing any specific company names.

"The AFP is aware of employment scams being promoted across a range of online platforms, including professional networking sites," its spokesperson said.

A resume often contained far more personal information than people realised, said Ryan Ko, director of the Cyber Research Centre at the University of Queensland.

"Beyond names, phone numbers and email addresses, it can reveal employment history, education, professional networks, locations, certifications and even government security clearances," he said.

Ryan Ko says resumes contain more personal information than people realise. (Supplied)

"Scammers can use this information to build detailed profiles of individuals, making phishing emails, fake job offers and identity fraud attempts far more convincing.

Professor Ko said scammers could harvest information on resumes for both direct and indirect benefits.

"Scammers may use it for identity theft, financial fraud, or selling personal data to other criminal groups," he said, adding that this helped scammers conduct "more targeted social engineering attacks" that are more likely to succeed than generic scam messages.

"The more they know about a victim, the easier it is to manipulate them or befriend them."

After securing a six-month full-time contract, Tony is finally able to wrap up his job hunting journey — for now.