Top 5 Job-Scam Reminders to Add to the Job-Search Resource List You Share With Laid-Off Clients
If you hand recently laid-off clients a standing list of job sites, tools and links, add five short scam reminders to it. All five rest on statements published by two official sources: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consumer page Job Scams and the Job Finder help page of CareerOneStop, a website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. Each is short enough to read in seconds. These are the five job scam reminders for a job-search resource list, in the order we would print them. The wording is our illustrative paraphrase, not official text:
- Start with the government job sources the FTC names: USAJobs.gov, CareerOneStop, and local government websites found through USA.gov. CareerOneStop says of its own listings that a scam can still get posted, so the next four lines always apply.
- Do not pay for the promise of a job, and never give card or other payment details to be considered, to begin training or to qualify.
- Do not give your Social Security number online before you are hired, and give bank details only in person, after you are hired.
- If a potential employer sends you a check and tells you to send part of the money on, or to buy gift cards with it, stop: the FTC calls that a fake check scam.
- Seen a job scam, or lost money to one? Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
That is the whole addition: five lines, and no sixth. The list informs your client, who will read it when you are not there. It does not screen jobs, and it cannot tell anyone whether a particular offer is real.
Three notes before you paste anything in. First, both sources are written for job seekers, not for coaches. Choosing these five points for a coach’s list, and the order they sit in (a place to start, three things to refuse, where to report), is our editorial judgment. Second, the sentences each line rests on are quoted below from the source pages as captured on October 11, 2026, so you can see what the source says and what we paraphrased. Third, a disclosure: Coachful publishes this article, and its closing line links to a Coachful page for career coaches. Neither the FTC nor CareerOneStop endorses this article or is affiliated with it. The two screenshots below are our own captures of their public pages, shown as source references.
1. Start with the government job sources the FTC names
Put this line at the top of the list, above the other job sites you recommend. We would keep the other four directly beneath it, so the five read as one block.
Line to add (illustrative paraphrase, not official wording): Start with the government job sources the FTC names: USAJobs.gov, CareerOneStop, and local government websites found through USA.gov. CareerOneStop says of its own listings that a scam can still get posted, so the next four lines always apply.
Source: the FTC’s Job Scams page, in the section “Advice on Finding a Job”, as captured on October 11, 2026 (the page itself shows the date March 2023). The section opens:
When you’re searching for a job, start with safe and reliable sources:
It then names three: USAJobs.gov, CareerOneStop and USA.gov. The FTC describes the third as a way to reach local listings: “Find local government websites, which list any open positions they may have on their websites.” That is why our line says local government websites found through USA.gov.
The phrase “safe and reliable sources” is the FTC’s, not ours, and it belongs next to what CareerOneStop says about its own listings on its Job Finder help page, as captured on October 11, 2026:
Although the job listings on CareerOneStop have been vetted by NLx, it is always possible that a scam can get posted.
The same page says CareerOneStop’s job postings come from NLx, by the National Labor Exchange. So this line gives your client a place to begin. It does not tell them that everything found there is genuine.
Why it suits this list (editorial): we put it first because it is the only one of the five that says where to look, and we think a list read alone when money is tight is easier to act on if it opens with a starting point.
2. Do not pay for the promise of a job
Line to add (illustrative paraphrase, not official wording): Do not pay for the promise of a job, and never give card or other payment details to be considered, to begin training or to qualify.
Sources: this line joins two statements about the same decision. The first is on the FTC’s Job Scams page, in the list “How To Avoid a Job Scam”, as captured on October 11, 2026:
Don't pay for the promise of a job. Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job. Anyone who does is a scammer.
The second is on CareerOneStop’s Job Finder help page, as captured on October 11, 2026:
Never provide credit card or other payment information to be considered for a job, or to begin “training” or to qualify for a job.
The FTC sentence is about being asked to pay for the job itself. The CareerOneStop sentence is about handing over card or payment details at three points: to be considered, to begin training or to qualify. One line on the list can carry both.
Why it suits this list (editorial): our reasoning, not the sources’, is that a fee presented as the last step before a paycheck is harder to refuse when money is tight, so the rule is better written down in advance than worked out alone in the moment.
3. Hold personal details until you are hired
Line to add (illustrative paraphrase, not official wording): Do not give your Social Security number online before you are hired, and give bank details only in person, after you are hired.
Source: CareerOneStop’s Job Finder help page, in its answer to “How do I know a job posting is not a scam?”, as captured on October 11, 2026. Two of its tips cover this decision:
Never provide your Social Security Number to an employer online before they have hired you.
Employers should only ask for your bank account information in person after you have been hired. Do not provide this type of information online or before you have been hired.
This is CareerOneStop’s guidance to job seekers, and we report it as exactly that. It is not a statement about what an employer may ask for or when, which this article does not cover.
Why it suits this list (editorial): a request for personal details can look like progress to someone who needs the hiring process to move, and a client reading alone has no one to ask whether the timing is usual, so the line gives them CareerOneStop’s timing to hold the request against.
4. Never bank on a check and send money on
Line to add (illustrative paraphrase, not official wording): If a potential employer sends you a check and tells you to send part of the money on, or to buy gift cards with it, stop: the FTC calls that a fake check scam.
Source: the FTC’s Job Scams page, in the list “How To Avoid a Job Scam”, as captured on October 11, 2026. It is the last of the four points in the screenshot under reminder 2:
Never bank on a “cleared” check. No honest potential employer will ever send you a check to deposit and then tell you to send on part of the money, or buy gift cards with it. That’s a fake check scam. The check will bounce, and the bank will want you to repay the amount of the fake check.
The last sentence is the consequence as the FTC states it. We leave it there and do not go into how checks are processed.
Why it suits this list (editorial): a check that arrives during a stretch without income can look like relief, and the request to send part of it on reaches your client when you are not there, so the rule needs to be on the page already in their hands.
5. Know where to report
Line to add (illustrative paraphrase, not official wording): Seen a job scam, or lost money to one? Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Source: the FTC’s Job Scams page, in the section “Report Job Scams to the FTC”, as captured on October 11, 2026:
If you see a job scam, or lose money to one, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
CareerOneStop’s help page sends job seekers to the same site. Link the line to ReportFraud.ftc.gov and add no promise about what a report will achieve. The reporting site’s own home page, as captured on October 11, 2026, says:
We can't resolve your individual report, but we use reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practices.
Why it suits this list (editorial): this is the one line for the moment after a scam has been spotted or money has been lost, and because a client acting alone may not bring that to you first, the list should say where to go without needing a conversation.
A 37-second FTC video on spotting a job scam
The FTC also has a short video on job scams. “Job Scams Warning with FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson” runs 37 seconds and was published on the agency’s FTCvideos YouTube channel on September 24, 2025. Our summary comes from the video’s published transcript and description. In the transcript, the Chairman names three signs of a job scam: promises of guaranteed earnings, big money for little effort, and anyone who asks you to pay up front to get a job. The advice for anyone who spots them is to stop and talk with someone you trust.
The third sign is the one behind reminder 2. The video is background for you as the coach. It is not a sixth reminder, and the list stays at five lines.
What this list does not do
A resource list goes home with your client. They read it without you, perhaps on a day when money is tight and an offer has just arrived that looks like the way out. That picture is our editorial reasoning for why the five lines are worth the space, not a finding from either source.
Because the list is read alone, be exact about its limits:
- It does not screen jobs. The five lines are information for the client. They do not check a posting, an employer or an offer, and neither the list nor the coach who wrote it can catch every scam.
- It does not make any source scam-free. CareerOneStop says that although its listings have been vetted by NLx, a scam can still get posted, and the first line should be read with that in mind.
- It does not replace checking a specific lead. Looking into one employer or one job lead before you pass it on is a separate, coach-side routine with its own steps. This article does not repeat them.
- It does not promise a job or any other result. Our group career coaching pilot launch plan advises against guaranteeing a job, because hiring depends on factors you do not control. The same restraint applies here.
The list is one small page among the working materials of a practice. If you are still setting up yours, see our article on how to become a career coach.
Frequently asked questions
Are government job sources free of scams?
No. The FTC’s page uses the words “safe and reliable sources” for USAJobs.gov, CareerOneStop and USA.gov, and CareerOneStop’s own help page says that although its listings have been vetted by NLx, “it is always possible that a scam can get posted.” Treat the first line on the list as a place to start, not as a guarantee.
Do the five lines replace checking a specific employer?
No. We chose these five because each is a standing rule or a destination that a client can use without knowing anything about a particular employer. Looking into a specific company or job lead is a separate routine that the coach runs before sharing a lead, and it is a separate topic from this one. Both source pages also give job seekers further steps for a particular employer, and they are worth reading in full.
Where should a client report a suspected job scam?
The FTC’s page directs people to ReportFraud.ftc.gov. CareerOneStop’s help page gives the same site and a phone number for the FTC, 1-877-382-4357. Do not attach a promise about what a report will do: the reporting site says it cannot resolve individual reports.
Is the wording in this article official?
No. Each “line to add” is an illustrative paraphrase written for this article. The block quotations are sentences from the FTC, CareerOneStop and ReportFraud.ftc.gov pages as captured on October 11, 2026, and pages change: the FTC page shows the date March 2023, and the page metadata read in our capture gave a last-modified date of August 13, 2026. Read the live pages before you print.
If you coach people through a job search, see Coachful for career coaches.
