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Is your offer letter real? How fake job offers are used to sell degrees
The offer letter says congratulations, then names the catch: a qualification you don't hold, from a provider they choose, paid for before you start. Here is a fake job offer letter with seven lines circled. Hold yours beside it and see which lines are doing the selling.
The short answer. An offer that makes you pay for the job, or buy a qualification from a provider it names, isn't real. Don't pay: contact the company yourself, using the message below.
A fake offer letter, with seven lines circled
The letter is invented, but every circled line is a move these letters make. Decide what's wrong with each line before opening its note.
Offer of employment
Dear Applicant ①,
Following your successful online assessment ②, we are delighted to offer you the position of Project Coordinator at [a company you have heard of] ③.
This offer is conditional on your holding a degree in a related subject. If you do not, our accredited training partner ④ can award one quickly, and the fee will be refunded with your first salary ⑤.
To secure your position, please pay within 48 hours ⑥ using the details attached. Kindly keep this offer confidential and reply only to this address ⑦.
Yours faithfully,
Human Resources Department
① "Dear Applicant"
The mass mailing. A real offer ends a real process, so it knows your name. A letter that could have gone to anyone usually did.
② "Your successful online assessment"
The interview nobody held. If the whole process was a text chat and a form, nobody at the company has met you.
③ "A company you have heard of"
The borrowed name. The name is what you'll search for, so it's the one part that checks out. UK Visas and Immigration warns of fake "job offer letters that appear genuine".
④ "Our accredited training partner"
The product. Read the letter as an advert: the job is the hook, the qualification is what's for sale. Accredited by whom? It never says.
⑤ "Refunded with your first salary"
The refund on a chain. The refund hangs on a salary, which hangs on a job, which hangs on you paying first.
⑥ "Please pay within 48 hours"
The clock. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre lists urgency among the tell-tale signs of a scam. A real employer can spare you a day to think.
⑦ "Keep this offer confidential and reply only to this address"
The gag. UK Visas and Immigration says to be suspicious of demands for secrecy, and of being asked to reply to "a free email account such as Gmail". Compare the sender's domain with the company's own website.
Now notice what's missing: your hours, your manager, a contract. In Great Britain, real terms arrive in a written statement on your first day.
Prove it or buy it: the question that sorts every condition
Conditional offers are normal. What matters is what the condition asks you to do.
Prove or buy? A real condition asks you to prove what you already have. A fake one asks you to buy what you don't, from them. Some jobs do need a licence or check first: get it from the official body or an approved provider, never a "partner" link.
| The letter says | A real employer | A fake offer |
|---|---|---|
| "Subject to degree verification" | Asks your consent, then asks the university | Sends a link to pay for "verification" |
| "You must hold this qualification" | Lets you prove it, or gain it from any genuine provider | Names one provider, with payment details |
| "Mandatory training" | Puts it in your written terms | Wants a fee before any contract |
Real checks go to the university or a service such as Hedd (UK) or the National Student Clearinghouse (US). Hedd "is not for use by students or graduates to verify their own awards", so an employer's link asking you to pay to verify your own degree has it backwards.
The US Federal Trade Commission agrees: "Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job."
In Great Britain, agencies can't charge you for finding work: that's an offence under section 6 of the Employment Agencies Act 1973. Nor can they make a paid service, such as training, a condition of finding you work.
How a job offer sells a degree, one rung at a time
Selling a fake qualification has one big problem: the buyer has to believe the paper is worth the money. A job offer fixes that in one line, by putting a salary on the other side of the scale. Then the climb begins.
- You pay the partner for the qualification in line ④. It will arrive "in days". What breaks it: look up the provider first.
- Two days later, HR emails. The certificate must be "verified" before you start, for a fee, through a link they send. What breaks it: ask the company's real HR team how they check qualifications.
- Then the visa: you've secured the job, they say, and must now pay visa fees. UK Visas and Immigration describes exactly this scam, and its answer is blunt: "a legitimate employer would never ask for payment to secure a visa". What breaks it: GOV.UK and the sponsor register.
- Last, a fee to release the refund promised in line ⑤. What breaks it: your bank, then your country's fraud reporting service (Report Fraud in most of the UK).
If paying once leads to another request, you're on the ladder. Stop at the rung you're on.
And the qualification itself? Employers check it with whoever awarded it, and a "partner" that isn't a recognised awarding body has no record anyone official will confirm. Do employers actually check your degree? explains.
Four checks before you pay anyone anything
- Find the company yourself (settles ③ and ⑦). Look up its official website and ask HR whether the offer is theirs.
- Check the paperwork (settles ③). In the UK, compare the letter's address with the registered office on the Companies House register and, for a work visa, check the sponsor register. Elsewhere, use your country's company register.
- Look up the provider (settles ④). For a UK degree, use GOV.UK's degree-awarding check; for a US one, DAPIP. For vocational qualifications in England or Northern Ireland, search the Register of Regulated Qualifications, then the government warning lists.
- Test any "verification" link (settles rung 2) with the verification trap check to see whose it really is.
The message that ends a fake offer
You don't owe the sender a reply. Write to the company, using contact details from its own website:
"Hello, I've received an offer letter for the role of [job title] that appears to come from [company name]. It came from [sender's address] and asks me to pay [provider name] for a qualification before I start. Is this offer genuine? I haven't paid anything or sent any documents."
A real employer won't mind. A company whose name is being borrowed will want to know, which is exactly why the letter asked for secrecy.
Even if you haven't paid, report the email: the NCSC's reporting page explains how to forward it.
Already paid, or sent your passport?
A job offer scam is run by people who send these letters all day. Being caught says more about their practice than your judgement.
- Stop paying. The next rung is already written.
- Call your bank on the number on your card and ask whether the payment can be reversed.
- Report it in the UK. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, report it to Report Fraud, the route the NCSC names; in Scotland, to Police Scotland.
- Elsewhere? In the US, use ReportFraud.ftc.gov; in other countries, your police or consumer-protection body.
- Sent a passport scan or other ID? The ICO's identity theft guidance suggests telling your bank about anything unusual, checking your credit file and considering Cifas protective registration. In the US, use IdentityTheft.gov.
If the job really needs a qualification you don't have, there are honest routes to one while you work. None starts with a payment link in an offer letter.
Sources
- FTC: Job Scams: never pay to get a job
- FTC: What To Do if You Were Scammed: reversing a payment
- UK Visas and Immigration: Fraud, tricks and scams
- NCSC: How to spot a scam email, text message or call: urgency
- NCSC: Report a scam email: Report Fraud and Police Scotland
- Employment Agencies Act 1973, section 6: no fees for finding work, except where regulations allow
- GOV.UK: Agency workers, Fees: no fee for finding you work
- GOV.UK: Written statement of employment particulars
- Hedd: not for graduates' own awards
- National Student Clearinghouse: Verifications: US degree verification
- Companies House: Search the register: UK companies and registered offices
- GOV.UK: Register of licensed sponsors: workers: UK visa sponsors
- GOV.UK: Check if your university or college can award a degree: UK degree-awarding bodies
- US Department of Education: DAPIP: accredited US institutions
- GOV.UK: Find a regulated qualification
- ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IdentityTheft.gov: US reporting and recovery
- ICO: Identity theft: steps after your personal details are taken
Check it before you trust it. The free tools in the Fake Degree Lab look at a CV, a school's website, a message or a "verification" service and show the warning signs, with links to the official registers.