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Job offers by text and WhatsApp: real or a scam?

By the StoryCheck team · 6 min read · Published 29 September 2026

A job offer that arrives by text or WhatsApp from a recruiter you never contacted is very likely a scam, and the test is money: at some point you are asked to pay a fee, hand over your bank details or move money through your account. In the UK a recruitment agency cannot charge you for finding you work, so any request to pay up front ends the conversation.

What does a job scam text look like?

The first message is short and upbeat: a recruiter has seen your CV, or a company is hiring for flexible, part-time or remote work with generous pay, often with an invitation to carry on the chat on WhatsApp. Report Fraud says job scams most commonly involve adverts or contact out of the blue about job opportunities, followed by requests for upfront payments, and the government's Stop! Think Fraud campaign lists tempting jobs among the hooks used in fake online adverts.

• You never applied, or you cannot remember the company.
• The pay is high for little work and no experience.
• There is no real interview, just an instant yes.
• The recruiter uses a mobile number or a webmail address such as Gmail or Yahoo. Report Fraud notes that genuine businesses usually give a landline and their own email domain.
• You are asked to pay for training, equipment, a starter kit, a security check or an "application fee".
• You are asked for bank details "to set up your salary" before any contract exists. Report Fraud warns these details can be used to steal from your account.
• The job involves receiving money into your account and sending it on.

Can a recruiter ask you to pay?

Not for finding you work. GOV.UK is explicit: recruitment agencies cannot charge you a fee for finding or trying to find you work. They may offer optional paid extras such as CV writing or training, but they must give you the details in writing first and cannot make you use them as a condition of finding you a job. Modelling and entertainment agencies have separate rules. Take Five, the banks' fraud awareness campaign, is blunter still: you should never have to pay an upfront fee for a job application or job process.

Why is a payment processing job so dangerous?

Because it is not a job at all; it is money laundering. The Don't Be Fooled campaign, run by UK Finance with the fraud prevention service Cifas, describes the approach: you are asked to receive money into your bank account and transfer it on, keeping some for yourself, often after seeing what looks like a genuine job advert on social media. That makes you a money mule, which is a crime, and once you start, criminals may threaten you to keep going.

The consequences land on the account holder. Don't Be Fooled advises anyone who has had a bank account closed or been refused credit, and who thinks they may have acted as a money mule, to speak to their bank. UK Finance's intelligence data shows 12,438 money mules were disrupted in 2025. If you are worried that you or someone close to you is involved, Crimestoppers takes information anonymously on 0800 555 111.

How do you check a recruiter before you reply?

1. 1

   Look the company up yourself

   Search it on Companies House's free Find and update company information service, then find its official website. Companies House does not check the accuracy of what is filed, so a registration alone proves little.

2. 2

   Contact the company directly

   Call or email using the details on the company's own site and ask whether the recruiter works there and the job exists. Report Fraud recommends exactly this.

3. 3

   Check the email domain

   An offer from a real employer comes from its own domain, not a free webmail account.

4. 4

   Check the number

   A reverse lookup on the recruiter's number shows whether it is a real UK mobile or landline or a virtual or VoIP line, whether it is active on WhatsApp and any scam signals, without the sender knowing. An email lookup shows whether the address is new or disposable.

5. 5

   Keep your documents back

   Do not send passport scans, bank details or your National Insurance number until you have verified the employer and hold a written offer.

If the message arrived as an ordinary text, our guide to texts from unknown numbers covers the wider pattern, and the WhatsApp number guide explains what an unknown WhatsApp account can and cannot tell you.

What should you do if you have paid or shared details?

1. Stop replying, but keep the messages, numbers and payment details.
2. Call your bank on 159. If money has passed through your account for someone else, tell the bank straight away.
3. Report it to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040, or to Police Scotland on 101.
4. Forward the original text free to 7726 and report the chat inside WhatsApp.
5. Warn the jobs site where your CV is listed that its users are being targeted, as Report Fraud suggests.
6. If you sent ID documents, check your credit file over the following months.