Is this job legit?
A free job scam checker for South Africa. WhatsApp messages from “HR.” R250 background check fees. “Earn R500/day liking videos.” Screenshot it or paste it below.
A WhatsApp screenshot works. We read the text off it for you.
Free tools for your next application
No signup, no fees, no watermark. If anyone charges you for these, that is the scam.
Take it with you
Everything above works in your browser. The app does the two things a web page cannot: it tells you before a government post closes, and it remembers your details so your Z83 fills itself.
What we check for
In the order we actually find them, most common first.
No official way to apply. The most common thing we see. A real post exists somewhere other than the message you were sent: the employer's own careers page, or the government circular. A scam lives only in the message.
Upfront fees and transfers. “Pay R250 for a background check” or “R500 registration fee.” No real employer charges you to apply, and none asks you to move money for them.
Unrealistic salaries. R40,000/month for “data entry, no experience needed” is not real. We flag what the market actually pays.
A personal email and a borrowed name. Gmail rather than a company domain, often using a real employer's name. Eskom, Transnet, SASSA and the big retailers are impersonated constantly, and job scams on Indeed, LinkedIn and Facebook usually copy a company that exists.
Hired without an interview. An offer that arrives before you applied, or straight after a two-line WhatsApp from a number you do not know, often with a foreign prefix (+62, +91).
Task and click scams. “Like videos, earn R500/day” schemes that pay small amounts first, then drain your account.
Job scammer list
Every number, email address and company name reported here goes into a searchable database. If somebody else has already been caught by the person contacting you, the answer takes seconds.
South Africa's unemployment rate is 31.4% (Stats SA, Q4 2025). Scammers exploit this by posting fake jobs on WhatsApp, Facebook, and job boards, targeting people who need work. CheckJobScam scans job postings against known scam patterns and gives you a risk score in under 30 seconds.
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If you've encountered a scam, reporting it helps us warn other job seekers.