A job message can look convincing without being genuine. A familiar company logo, a polished profile and correct spelling are easy to copy. Before sending identity documents or paying anything, check who is contacting you through a route you found yourself.
You do not need to decide whether every detail looks suspicious. The practical question is simpler: can you independently confirm this recruiter, this vacancy and this request?
Start a separate conversation with the real organisation
Pause the message thread. Find the organisation’s website independently, rather than opening the link supplied in the message. Use the contact details there to ask whether the named recruiter works with them and whether the vacancy or request is genuine.
A real company name does not prove that the sender represents it. Check the full email domain, not just the display name, and read the address carefully. A small spelling change or extra word can be easy to miss on a phone. Even an apparently correct address is not a substitute for verification if the request is unusual.
If someone says they are contacting you from Prism 7 Resourcing UK, use our website contact page to check. Do not rely on a number copied into the questionable message.
Ask about the role before sharing documents
Request the job title, location, working hours, duties, pay basis and the next step in the recruitment process. Ask how the sender received your details. Compare the answers with any application you made, but remember that a fraudster may have obtained information from a public CV.
You may legitimately be asked to provide identity or right-to-work information during recruitment. The safeguard is to verify the organisation and purpose first, then use its confirmed secure process. Ask what is needed, why it is needed and how it will be handled. An unexpected demand to send a passport image immediately into a chat should prompt a separate check.
Be precise about requests for money
GOV.UK explains that recruitment agencies cannot charge workers for finding or trying to find them work, with different rules for entertainment and modelling agencies. Certain separate services can carry charges, but an agency cannot make those services a condition of finding you work.
That distinction matters. A request to pay to secure an ordinary warehouse or office vacancy is different from a properly explained, legitimate check or optional service. Do not assume every recruitment-related payment is genuine, or that every payment is necessarily fraud. Establish what it is for and verify the provider before proceeding.
For DBS requests, the DBS advises jobseekers to check the level of check, their eligibility and who will process it. Do not pay a fee simply because a message uses the words “DBS clearance”.
An example message and the checks it needs
Fictional example for illustration: “Your application has been successful. Send your passport photo and pay the registration fee today to reserve your start.”
The example raises three questions worth asking:
- Which application? Confirm the actual role and the sender’s authority through the organisation’s independently sourced contact details.
- Why this document, through this channel? Ask for the verified document-handling process before sharing sensitive information.
- What exactly is the fee? Check the purpose and applicable rules. Urgency does not remove the need to verify it.
A message without those warning signs can still be fraudulent. Conversely, an informal writing style alone does not prove a genuine recruiter is a fraudster. Verification is more useful than judging appearances.
If you have already replied
Do not let embarrassment stop you taking action. Save the messages, contact details, website addresses and payment information. Stop communicating with the suspected fraudster and contact your bank promptly if money or banking details are involved.
Report Fraud’s recruitment-scam guidance explains reporting and practical next steps. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, use Report Fraud. Its guidance directs people in Scotland to report via 101. If the approach came through a job board, notify that platform as well.
If you shared a password, change it through the genuine service, including any other account where you reused it. If you shared identity documents, explain that when reporting so you can get advice relevant to the information exposed.
A short check before you respond
- Find the real organisation without using the message’s links.
- Confirm the recruiter and vacancy through that independent route.
- Check the reason for any document or payment request.
- Use the verified process, not the sender’s urgency, to decide the next step.
You can browse current Prism 7 Resourcing UK opportunities on our website. If a message claiming to be from us does not match what you expected, check with us before acting.
