Job scams and upfront fees

A real employer does not ask you to pay for equipment, training, software or a background check in order to be hired. Any request for money from a new employer is the scam.

The common shapes

• The equipment check. You are hired quickly, sent a check to buy a laptop from "their supplier", and asked to forward the balance. The check bounces after you have sent real money.
• Pay for your own background check. Employers pay for those.
• The gift card starter kit. Buy the software license in gift cards, get reimbursed in your first paycheck. There is no first paycheck.
• Reshipping and package forwarding. Receive parcels at home and post them on. This is receiving stolen goods, and the legal problem lands on you.
• The interview that never leaves a chat app. A whole hiring process by text on Telegram or WhatsApp, an offer within an hour, and no video call and no phone number.
• Work from home, huge money, no experience. Almost always a scam or a pyramid scheme.

What is normal and what is not

Normal: an interview, references, a written offer, and a request for your tax and bank details after that offer, usually through a payroll system you log into yourself. Not normal: your Social Security number before an interview, your bank login at any point, a payment of any kind from you, or your identity documents sent as photos into a chat.

What Jinu shares when you apply

Applying through Jinu sends the employer your name, your email address, your message, your answers to their screening questions, and your resume if you attached one. That is all. Anything else they get is something you typed.

Posting a job on Jinu costs the employer $20. That is a small barrier to a spammer, not a background check on the company. Verify the employer yourself: search the company name, and type its website address yourself rather than following a link from the message.

Reporting

Use the more menu on the job and choose Report this job. For anything with money already involved, email safety@jinu.app and report it to the FTC. The order to do all of that in, and the reporting links, are in I think I have been scammed.