Fake recruiters charging job seekers
Fake recruiters used copies of a software company's website to charge job seekers for jobs that did not exist. New fake sites appeared every week, and the company's own staff were chasing each one.
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How the scam worked
From late July 2025, scammers contacted job seekers by SMS and WhatsApp, posing as the company's recruiters and offering jobs that did not exist. Anyone who replied was sent to a website made to look like the company's own and asked to pay an upfront fee for "training". The scammers took the money and disappeared.
Victims told the company, and its staff asked the registrars to take each fake site down. Every time one came down, new ones appeared, and the same work started again the next week.
What it cost the company
The job seekers lost the money, but the company paid too: legal fees, and staff time spent looking for new sites and chasing takedowns. The scams also put its name at risk with its own customers, who trust it with their customers' data, and with the people it wanted to hire.
What changed
The company brought in DefendDomain so it no longer had to chase each new site itself.
- We watch for new lookalikes of the company's web address, so a new fake site is flagged when its domain is registered rather than when a victim complains.
- The company is alerted when one appears, with the evidence attached.
- We build the case and send it to the registrars and hosting companies, and follow up with them, instead of the company's staff.
We cannot remove the SMS or WhatsApp messages themselves, or the accounts that send them. We go after the fake websites those messages point to.
If fake recruiters are using your name, our guide on what to do when someone is impersonating your company covers the first steps.





