Overseas recruitment traps: how they are built and how to spot one

Fraudulent overseas job offers are the most common immigration-adjacent fraud there is. The version aimed at professionals is not the obvious one.

The structure

1. An approach through a professional network or a job board, from a recruiter with a plausible profile and a real company's name.
2. A rapid process — an interview by video, an offer within days, terms above market.
3. An offer letter on convincing letterhead, sometimes with a genuine company registration number taken from a public register.
4. A fee. Visa processing, work permit, accommodation deposit, medical, or an agency charge. Sometimes routed through a third party described as a licensed agent.
5. Delays and further fees, then silence.

The tells

• Any fee charged to the candidate. In most jurisdictions employers pay for work permits and recruitment agencies may not charge candidates. A request for money is the single reliable signal.
• Communication from a free email domain or a domain registered recently that closely resembles the real one.
• No interview with anybody who would be your manager.
• An offer without a formal contract naming the entity, the role, the salary and the notice terms.
• Pressure and confidentiality — an expiring offer, a request not to contact the company directly.

The verification

• Contact the company through its own published switchboard, not a number in the email.
• Check the recruiter against the company's own staff listing and against the professional register where one exists.
• Check whether the country requires the employer to hold a sponsorship licence, and whether this employer is on the published list.
• Ask for the work permit application reference and verify it with the authority.

The version that is not fraud but is still a trap

A genuine job in a country where the visa ties you to the employer, on terms that are legal and one-sided: a long notice period, repayment of relocation costs on early departure, accommodation tied to employment. That is not illegal and it is worth reading carefully, because the immigration status makes leaving harder than the contract alone suggests.