Is This Online Job Real? A Checklist to Verify Any Work-From-Home Offer

Short answer: the fastest test is who pays whom. In a real job, money only flows from the employer to you. If you are asked to pay anything to start, to unlock tasks, to buy equipment or to withdraw your pay, the job is fake. Then check that the company exists in an official registry, that its website is not brand new, and that the recruiter is real by contacting the company yourself.

The one rule: who pays whom?

The FTC puts it simply: if you have to pay to get paid, it is a scam. Ghana's Cyber Security Authority gives the same warning about fake recruiters. Payments disguised with other names still count:

• Registration, application or form fees.
• Training, starter kit, uniform or "onboarding" fees.
• Deposits, top-ups or "recharges" to unlock tasks.
• Buying equipment from "our vendor".
• A tax, fee or "unfreezing" charge to withdraw your earnings.
• Receiving money and forwarding part of it on.

If any of these appear, you can stop here. The rest of the checklist is for offers that pass this first test.

The 12-point checklist

1. Did you apply? An unexpected job offer by WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS or Instagram from someone you never contacted is the most common start of a scam. The FTC says real employers will not contact you that way.
2. Is the pay realistic? "Earn GH¢500 a day from your phone, no experience" is not a real job. Compare with similar roles on reputable job sites.
3. Is the job on the company's own site? Find the official website yourself through a search, not from the link you were sent, and look for the vacancy on its careers page.
4. Does the email match the company? Recruiters should write from the company's real domain. Gmail, Outlook or lookalike domains such as "company-careers" or "company-hr" are warnings.
5. Is the company registered? In Ghana, search the Office of the Registrar of Companies (orc.gov.gh). In Nigeria, use the CAC public search. In the UK, use Companies House. In the US, use the state business registry. A real company should exist where it says it does.
6. How old is the website? Look up the domain on ICANN Lookup (lookup.icann.org) or another WHOIS tool and check the creation date. When the Ghanaian fact-checker Dubawa examined fake Jumia and Temu "promo" sites in July 2025, the domains had been created only weeks earlier. A company claiming ten years of history with a two-month-old website is lying about something.
7. Is the recruiter real on LinkedIn? Open the profile, tap More, then About this profile to see when the account was created and whether it has a verified workplace. Check that the company page lists employees and that some of them have real histories. Then contact the company to confirm the person works there.
8. Was there a real interview? A text-only interview on Telegram, WhatsApp or a Teams chat, and an offer within hours, is a classic fake. Ask for a voice or video call.
9. Is there a written contract? A real job has a contract with the employer's name, address, your role, pay and start date. Read it before you send ID.
10. What personal data do they want, and when? Ghana Card, passport, BVN, bank logins, MoMo PIN or verification codes before you have a verified contract is a warning. Nobody legitimate ever needs your PIN or one-time codes.
11. Does it involve a strange app or website? Being asked to download an app from outside the Play Store or App Store, or to work on an unknown "task platform", is a strong sign of a task scam.
12. What do others say? Search the company, the recruiter's name, phone number and email with the word "scam". Check the number on TrustCheck too.

The most common fake job messages

These are typical of what people in Ghana, Nigeria and beyond receive. The wording changes, but the patterns repeat.

Signs of a fake job website or job board

• A "recruitment portal" for a government agency on an address that is not the agency's official .gov.gh site. The CSA's alerts on fake Ghana Armed Forces recruitment pointed people to the official portal instead.
• Pages stuffed with adverts, asking you to share the link with friends or WhatsApp groups to "complete" your application.
• Application forms built on Google Forms that ask for ID numbers and MoMo details.
• No physical address, no named staff and a contact that is only a WhatsApp number.
• Copied text from a real company's careers page, with a different phone number.

Where real remote jobs usually come from

Genuine remote work tends to come through the company's own careers page, established job boards, platforms like Upwork and Fiverr (where payment stays on the platform), and people you know. None of these will ask you to pay to start. Even on a trusted site, scammers can post fake listings, so the checklist still applies. For freelance platforms, read Upwork and Fiverr scams.

What to do if you already paid or shared your details

1. Stop paying and stop sending documents.
2. Call your MoMo provider or bank immediately to report fraud and ask them to flag the receiving account.
3. If you shared ID, a PIN or a verification code, change your PINs and passwords, turn on two-step verification and tell your bank.
4. Report it. In Ghana, call or text the Cyber Security Authority on 292 and report to the Ghana Police Service. In Nigeria, report to the police and the EFCC. In the US, use ReportFraud.ftc.gov. In the UK, use reportfraud.police.uk.
5. Report the job advert to the website, Facebook page or LinkedIn where you saw it.

Before you reply to the next offer, check a number, handle or website on TrustCheck, and report it if it is fake. Also see task scams, fake remote job offers and how to check if a website is legit.