Wary jobseekers make LinkedIn recruiter scams a hiring cost for honest employers

The larger figure in LinkedIn's survey is the avoidance. For every respondent who said they had fallen for a job scam, about four had passed on a role they wanted because they doubted it was legitimate ^[22]. In a sample of 500, that is roughly 325 working professionals ^[23]. HRD, which reported the figures, argues that employers with genuine vacancies are paying too, because some candidates cannot tell their real ads from the fakes ^[25].

LinkedIn's question measured doubt, so the 65 per cent includes some people who were right to walk away ^[7]. A skeptic would say that makes it a measure of good judgement. The 37 per cent who have done it more than once are harder to explain that way ^[7]. Someone who has walked away twice is applying doubt as a rule, and the rule catches real vacancies along with fake ones. The reporting does not include a measure, from Aurecon or any other employer, of applications lost to impersonation.

Recruiting teams carry the exposure. To a jobseeker, a real employee's name and work history make an approach look legitimate, HRD noted ^[21]. Talent acquisition staff make useful targets because their names lend weight to a recruitment message ^[13]. A visible, named talent team helps genuine hiring. It also supplies the material for a convincing fake. Tech recruiter Trevor Churchley told the ABC he knew of several genuine profiles that had been hijacked or cloned and then used to contact people who had publicly said they were out of work ^[11].

A redundancy round adds a second exposure. Churchley said the "open to work" banner draws attention from scammers posing as recruiters ^[12], and departing staff are likely to switch it on ^[13]. Their CVs then go out carrying what Ryan Ko, director of the University of Queensland's Cyber Research Centre, said a CV can reveal: employment history, locations, certifications and even government security clearances ^[14]. "The more they know about a victim, the easier it is to manipulate them," he said ^[15]. Cuts made this quarter put former staff, and what their CVs say about the firm, into the pool scammers work next quarter.

Health employers show the timescale. The National Anti-Scam Centre's job scam fusion cell ran from September 2024 to March 2025, about six months, and brought together government, law enforcement, academics and the private sector ^[16][24]. The result arrived within two quarters, and it took a sector-wide effort to get it. ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said at the time that scammers were "increasingly preying on people seeking relief from cost-of-living pressures" ^[18]. The taskforce also produced guides to help businesses avoid being impersonated ^[19].

Aurecon told the ABC it never makes an offer without first holding formal interviews, and it does not ask candidates for any payment up front ^[3]. Rules like those help a candidate only if the employer has published them where the candidate will look. LinkedIn career expert Brendan Wong said modern job scams are "deliberately engineered to look authentic and pressure you to act quickly" ^[10]. HRD's first suggested step is to make the careers page the source of truth, and it says most of its steps need staff time instead of new budget ^[20].