Hiring is hard enough without scammers muddying the water. New figures show Australians lost $24.4 million to job and employment scams in 2025, with a further $4 million gone in just the first three months of 2026, according to Scamwatch. Fake job ads, bogus recruiters and ‘pay a fee to start’ cons have become common enough that they are now changing how people look for work.
Here is the part that should worry every small business owner: the damage is not only to the people who get scammed. New research from LinkedIn’s Job Search Safety Pulse found that 65% of Australian professionals decided not to apply for a role they were interested in because they were not confident it was legitimate. For 37%, that has happened more than once. In other words, good candidates are quietly skipping your genuine ad because they cannot tell it apart from a scam.
The good news is that a few simple habits make your business look trustworthy and keep real applicants coming:
- Post from a verified company page. Advertise on your own website and on platforms where your business is verified, and link back to your real domain so candidates can check you out.
- Use your business email, never a free one. Reaching out from a personal Gmail or a lookalike address is the fastest way to look like a fraud. Keep all contact on your company domain.
- Never ask for money or bank details upfront. Legitimate employers do not charge fees or request banking and ID documents before a real offer. Say so plainly in the ad.
It is also worth protecting your own brand. Scammers love to impersonate well-known local businesses, so check periodically that no one is running fake ads in your name, and give staff a simple way to report anything suspicious.
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