If you receive a call from a recruiter who says he has seen your resume on an employment website (such as Indeed) with a request to connect on WhatsApp, beware. It’s likely an employment scam.
Employment and job scams are on the rise. Hiya’s data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, employment scams were:
#1 in Spain
#3 in the UK
#4 in France
What Hiya users are saying about employment scams
When an unwanted call is received, consumers using Hiya Protect via their phone carrier or the Hiya mobile app, can tap a prompt on their phone reporting it, and they can also leave a comment about the nature of the call. Below are comments received from Hiya users about employment and job scams they’ve received:
- “They say they have read my resume and they have a job offer for me, and to add them to WhatsApp and write to them.” – Hiya user in Spain
- “Pretends to be Indeed regarding job offers and asks to be added to WhatsApp.” – Hiya user in France
- “Fake company saying she would like to discuss a job interview and that I need to add her number on WhatsApp” – Hiya user in the UK
Although the wording of the calls differs slightly from country to country, the content of these employment scams is very similar. Hiya users report a recorded message in which the caller pretends to have seen the recipient’s resume on a major job board and requests to connect on WhatsApp, where the recipient will receive more information about the job duties. Once on WhatsApp, the scam continues within the private messaging app.
Employment scams around the world
Hiya noticed an uptick in employment scams in Spain in late 2024. By October 2024 they were the #1 scam in the country. In Q1 2025 these same scams began increasing in other European countries, especially France and the UK.
Employment and job scams aren’t confined to Europe. In a Consumer Alert titled Top Scams of 2024, the United States Federal Trade Commission listed employment scams among the most common scams in the U.S., stating:
“Job scams and fake employment agency losses jumped — a lot. Between 2020-2024, reports nearly tripled and losses grew from $90 million to $501 million.”
Deepfake employment scams
Job offer robocalls aren’t the only employment related scams going around. One of the most sinister employment scams involves deepfake video, where a fraudster impersonates a prospective employee to get a job and then gain access to sensitive company data.
In an article in the technology news publication The Register titled,
I'm a security expert, and I almost fell for a North Korea-style deepfake job applicant …Twice, the author tells the story of a security engineer for a San Francisco-based vulnerability management company. When interviewing candidates for a remote software developer job, the security engineer encountered not one, but two, applicants who used deepfake video in their job interview. "If they almost fooled me, a cybersecurity expert, they definitely fooled some people," he told The Register.
How to protect against employment and job scams
The best way to protect against employment and job related scams is to use technology that will either block scam calls or label them as a likely scam so you can proceed with caution.
For mobile phone carriers, there’s Hiya Protect, a complete call protection solution that enables carriers to block fraud calls and label suspected nuisance calls to protect subscribers.
For individuals and business professionals, Hiya recommends the Hiya AI Phone app, which features:
- Real-time scam protection
- AI-voice and deepfake protection
- AI-assisted call screening
- Call summaries and transcripts
Learn more about the Hiya AI Phone app and to download a free two-week trail.
