Two thirds of Australian professionals have avoided applying for a job they thought might be a scam.
Australians lost $24.4 million to job and employment scams in 2025, with a further $4 million lost in just the first three months of 2026, according to Scamwatch. Behind those figures is a job market where the line between a real opportunity and a fraudulent one has become difficult enough to read that it is now changing how people look for work.
New research from LinkedIn’s Job Search Safety Pulse report finds that two thirds of Australian professionals, 65%, have decided not to apply for a role they were interested in because they were not confident it was legitimate. For 37% of people, this has happened more than once. The effect is not just personal. Every legitimate job posting that gets skipped because a candidate could not verify it is real represents a missed hire for the business behind it.
Fear changes behaviour
The research reveals that questioning whether a job is actually real has become a routine part of the job search process. Sixty-one percent of Australians say they have seen a job they suspected was a scam, one in four have come close to falling for one, and 16% have actually been a victim, rising to 25% for Gen Z job seekers aged 18 to 28.
The pressure of cost of living is compounding the risk. Nearly half of Australian professionals, 49%, say financial stress would make them more likely to take risks when applying for jobs, with 35% saying they would be somewhat more likely to let their guard down under economic pressure. The combination of widespread scam activity and financial vulnerability is creating a job market where caution and risk-taking are happening simultaneously, often in the same person.
Who is most exposed
Gen Z is bearing the greatest exposure. Almost four in five Gen Z job seekers, 79%, have skipped applying for jobs they did not trust were legitimate. That level of avoidance is not just a safety behaviour. It represents a significant portion of a generation opting out of opportunities because the signals of legitimacy are not clear enough.
Brendan Wong, LinkedIn Career Expert, said the sophistication of modern job scams makes them harder to detect than earlier versions. “Today’s job scams are increasingly sophisticated. Because they are deliberately engineered to look authentic and pressure you to act quickly, they can be more difficult to spot.”
LinkedIn platform data shows that scammers frequently exploit early moments in a job search by attempting to move conversations off trusted platforms. Nine in ten reported scam attempts redirect members to personal messaging apps, where accounts are harder to verify and conversations feel more informal. Over half of all off-platform attempts happen in the very first message, before any meaningful context or trust has been established.
The warning signs
For 61% of Australians, two things immediately flag a job as a scam: being asked for upfront fees, or being asked to share sensitive information such as bank details or a passport too early in the process. High-pressure tactics are also a significant warning sign, with nearly half of respondents, 48%, saying that being rushed into a decision quickly shifts a role from an opportunity to a concern.
LinkedIn advises job seekers to pause during early outreach if roles or messages feel rushed or vague, to verify who is behind a role by checking company pages and recruiter profiles, to be cautious of requests to move conversations off-platform quickly, and to report suspicious activity to help protect other job seekers.
For small businesses posting roles, the implication is equally direct. In a market where candidates are routinely second-guessing the legitimacy of listings, the signals of credibility, a verified company page, a named recruiter with a visible professional history, and a clear and consistent application process, are no longer optional. They are the difference between a candidate applying and a candidate moving on.
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