Big quote: Verified profiles, company pages, and polished job listings are being used to lure job seekers into scams that can cost them money or expose their personal information. Jay Jones, a Chicago-area job seeker who calls himself The Profiler, has made it his mission to find them. Since being laid off from an advertising role in late 2023, Jones says he has helped get nearly 60,000 fake job listings removed from the internet, most of them from LinkedIn. He has also flagged about 7,000 profiles that he believes were used in job scams.
The fraud is not limited to obvious fake accounts. Some scammers create batches of recruiter profiles using copied photos and similar account details. Others take over dormant, verified LinkedIn accounts and attach them to legitimate companies. Still others place job ads on legitimate company pages that direct applicants to outside websites or email addresses.
The approach is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Jones said scammers use artificial intelligence to tailor job pitches to a person's résumé or career history. A recruiter might tell an applicant that their résumé needs work and then offer to help for a fee. Other scams seek more valuable information, including a driver's license or Social Security number.
Jones recently came across several LinkedIn accounts using the name Linda Anthony. The accounts used the same image, showed recent creation dates, and listed similar roles at "Confidential Jobs." One profile described Linda Anthony as a contract recruiter in Smyrna, Ga., while another identified her as a contract specialist in California.
Jones said the profile URLs also appeared to follow the same pattern, suggesting the accounts had been created in bulk. After he posted about them online, the links went dark.
"You turn the lights on," he told The Wall Street Journal, "and the roaches run."
The scams are landing at a difficult time for people looking for work. In August, 27% of unemployed Americans had been searching for a job for more than six months, near the highest level in more than a decade outside the pandemic.
LinkedIn said its automated systems stop most scam activity before users see it. The company said it blocked nearly 90 million fake accounts before they went live in the second half of 2025. It has also introduced new safety features and worked with the FBI this summer to educate job seekers about scams.
Still, the platform faces a persistent problem: fake accounts and fake listings can borrow credibility from real people and real companies.
One scheme Jones has tracked involves hijacked LinkedIn accounts. Some users verify their identities on the platform, receive a verification badge, and later stop using their profiles. Scammers can take control of those accounts, change the work history, and list the account holder as a recruiter for a legitimate business.
That can give a scammer a verified profile and a company affiliation at the same time.
Jones found several such accounts listed as employees of Argenta Talent Acquisition, a Colorado recruiting firm. One account belonged to a dentist in Chile. Argenta CEO Kelley Barcus said the bogus profiles created a direct threat to her company.
"It's my brand, it's my reputation," she said.
Barcus hired Jones to get the accounts disconnected from Argenta's LinkedIn page. LinkedIn accepted reports on the profiles, but the accounts had 14 days to update their information or appeal before LinkedIn could remove their company affiliation. LinkedIn said that process can help correct inaccurate employment information.
Jones said the delay gave scammers more time to reach job seekers. "Scammers don't deserve fairness," he said. "It's economic terrorism."
Oscar Rodriguez, LinkedIn's vice president of trust product, said scammers adapt quickly as platforms add new defenses. LinkedIn asks recruiters to verify their identities, but Rodriguez said verification doesn't guarantee that a profile or job posting is legitimate.
The company plans to introduce a tool later this month that would allow verified employers to immediately remove users' affiliations with their companies.
Jones also looks for fraud inside legitimate company pages. In one case, he found what appeared to be 30 job listings on Hyundai Motor's verified LinkedIn page. The positions included data-entry specialist and customer-service representative. Screenshots reviewed by The Wall Street Journal showed that the ads contained errors and linked to an outside site not affiliated with Hyundai. Applicants were told to email résumés to an outside address.
He found a similar issue involving Capital One. Job ads for administrative assistants appeared on LinkedIn but led to an unaffiliated website. Jones compared the listings with Capital One's own career site, where similar openings were generally listed under titles such as senior administrative assistant or administrative assistant III.
Hyundai and Capital One said they work with LinkedIn to remove fraudulent job postings.
For Jones, the work has become more than a side project. He still searches for a permanent job, drives for Uber, and trains cybersecurity professionals to recognize scam tactics. He also seeks paid speaking work, raises money online, and sells apparel with anti-scam slogans.
He often keeps about 50 browser tabs open while tracking leads, he said, and his browser crashes several times a week.
Image credit: The Wall Street Journal