reddit job scams

Outright scams were rare. Of 311 hiring posts, 6 (2%) scored as likely scams, and 40 (13%) carried a warning of any kind. Most, 228 of 311, showed no warning signs at all.

The more common problem is exploitation: real posts that ask for free work, pay far below what the work is worth, or say so little that you can't tell what the job is.

Right now, 31 of the 255 jobs posted on the board in the last 14 days carry a warning, and 3 are hidden as likely scams.

82 of the 311 hiring posts had at least one warning sign. Grouped by kind, with the number of posts showing each:

• 37 posts:

  Vague work, no details

  No task, no deliverables, sometimes no role at all. Often it's just a lazy post, but it's also how scams open: the details only arrive in a DM.

• 24 posts:

  Pay far below the work

  $2 an hour for social media work across several platforms, $4 an hour for a whole shift on a live video call, $200 to illustrate an entire graphic novel.

• 10 posts:

  Free work as a test or contest

  A 4,000-word writing sample in the application form, a 48-hour build challenge where only the top three teams get paid, a character design contest that hands the winners' rights to the studio.

• 3 posts:

  Pay far above the work

  Big money for trivial tasks, like half of every payment you “handle”. When pay looks too good for the effort, find out why before you reply.

• 3 posts:

  Handling money or trading

  Receiving payments and passing them on, or promoting a forex trading group. These are the posts that can get you into legal trouble, not just cost you time.

A short paid test is fair. An unpaid one that produces something the poster can use is free work. Ask for a smaller test, or for it to be paid.

These were rare in our data, but they're the ones that cost people money, accounts or worse. Each one is a reason to stop replying.

• Moving money or parcels

  You receive payments or packages and pass them on, keeping a cut. One post we graded offered “50% of each deposit you receive” with no experience needed. Moving money for strangers can make you part of money laundering, and you're the one the bank can trace.

• Paying to start

  Paid training, a starter kit, equipment you buy and get “reimbursed” for, or a cheque that overpays you and asks for the difference back. Real employers don't charge you to work for them.

• Renting out your account

  A weekly fee to “borrow” your LinkedIn, Upwork, Reddit or bank account. The renter works or moves money under your name, and the bans and debts land on you.

• Telegram or WhatsApp only

  Moving to a chat app is common and usually fine. A post with no details and only a Telegram or WhatsApp contact is different. It's how task scams start: small payments for likes or reviews, then a deposit to unlock bigger tasks.

• Your ID or bank details up front

  Nobody needs a passport scan or card details before they've hired you. Share tax and bank details only after there's a signed contract, through real payroll or a payment platform.

• Recruiting and “investment” roles

  Jobs that pay you for signing up other people, or for promoting crypto and forex trading. The money comes from your recruits or your own deposits, not from work.

Some things look odd if you're used to job boards but are how hiring on Reddit normally works. Our grader is told not to count them as warning signs on their own:

• Applying by DM or in the comments.
• A client who doesn't name a company. Many are individuals.
• No pay in the post.
• Being paid in crypto. Being asked to buy or deposit crypto is a different matter.
• Requirements about location, age, language or equipment.

Hiring posts and warnings per subreddit. The numbers are small, so one busy poster can move a subreddit's share a lot.

Is r/forhire safe?

Of 22 hiring posts on r/forhire, 3 carried a warning and none scored as likely scams. Most of the subreddit is people offering their own services; we skip those posts before grading.

Is r/slavelabour legit?

Of 20 hiring posts, 2 carried a warning and none scored as likely scams. It's a subreddit for small, cheap tasks, so expect low pay rather than fraud.

The same goes for r/DoneDirtCheap, where the risk is the pay: 6 of its 19 hiring posts were flagged for pay far below the work, which is what the name promises, and 4 scored high enough for a scam warning.

1. Read the whole post on Reddit, and the comments. Other users often call out scams there.
2. Look at the poster's profile: how old the account is, and whether people have warned about them before.
3. Search for the company name and for a distinctive sentence from the post.
4. Get the task, the pay and how you'll be paid in writing before you start.
5. Never pay, buy equipment, or send ID or bank details to get a job.
6. For larger pieces of work, ask for part of the payment up front, or agree paid milestones.

• Stop replying, and don't send more money, files or details.
• If you sent money or bank details, call your bank now.
• If you shared an account login, change the password and sign out every other session.
• Report the post to the subreddit's moderators and to Reddit.
• Report it to your country's fraud reporting service. In the US that's the FTC, at ReportFraud.ftc.gov (opens in a new tab).

If you found the scam through Only Hiring, tell me with Feedback at the top of the page.

The figures come from 712 posts collected from 18 job subreddits since October 2026, and update as new posts come in. Posts tagged [For Hire] or [Offer] were skipped before grading. A language model read each post, decided whether it was hiring, scored it from 0 to 1 for scam risk using a fixed guide, and listed the warning signs it saw. Reposts and crossposts count once.

Of the 712 posts, 311 were hiring, 208 were discussion or questions, 111 were people offering their services, 53 were spam or promotion, 13 offered no pay at all, and 16 were something else. A score of 0.4 or more earns a warning, and 0.6 or more marks a likely scam. The warning signs are grouped by the words the model used.

The scores are one model's judgement, and it gets some wrong in both directions. Treat a warning as a reason to look closer, not a verdict. One outside check: Reddit itself later removed 5 of the 40 posts with a warning (13%), against 6 of the 271 without one (2%).

How Only Hiring works has more on the grading.