A genuine employee's LinkedIn profile can make a fake recruitment message look convincing.
That is exactly what happened to a former technology executive looking for work in June. The candidate received an email from someone claiming to be a senior talent leader at engineering consultancy Aurecon. The person was not contacting them on Aurecon's behalf.
The scammer had reportedly cloned the LinkedIn profile of a genuine Aurecon employee.
For jobseekers, seeing a real employee's name, job title and work history can make a fraudulent approach appear legitimate. For employers, the damage can go beyond one fake message. Candidates who become suspicious of recruitment scams may also start questioning legitimate job opportunities.
Recruitment scams can cost employers genuine candidates
The problem is becoming harder for jobseekers to identify.
Figures provided by Australia's ACCC to ABC News showed 138 scam reports linked to LinkedIn in July and August 2026, with reported losses of up to $254,449.
LinkedIn's Job Search Safety Pulse, based on a May survey of 500 Australian professionals, found that 65% had decided not to apply for a job they were interested in because they were unsure whether it was legitimate. For 37%, this had happened more than once.
That creates a less visible problem for employers.
A candidate who avoids a suspicious-looking vacancy may never reach the application stage, even when the job itself is genuine.
The same survey found that 61% had encountered a job they suspected was a scam, while 16% said they had fallen victim to one. Among Gen Z respondents, that figure was 25%.
LinkedIn data also found that nine in 10 reported scam attempts tried to move conversations to personal messaging apps, with more than half doing so in the first message.
Real employee profiles can become part of the scam
Recruiters and talent acquisition professionals can be particularly attractive targets for impersonation because their names carry credibility with jobseekers.
Tech recruiter Trevor Churchley told ABC News that he was aware of genuine profiles being cloned or taken over and then used to approach people who had publicly indicated they were looking for work.
The risk can increase when employees make their professional information highly visible online.
Candidate information can also give scammers material to make their approaches more convincing. CVs can contain employment history, locations, qualifications and other personal details that can be used in phishing or identity fraud.
For HR teams, this means recruitment security is not only about protecting job advertisements. It also involves considering how the organisation's employees and recruitment processes are represented online.
What employers can do
There are several relatively simple steps HR teams can take to make genuine recruitment easier for candidates to verify.
1. Make your careers page the source of truth
Every genuine vacancy should be available through the organisation's official careers page.
If candidates receive an approach for a role they cannot find anywhere on the company's website, they have a clear reason to be cautious.
HR teams should also regularly check whether their company name is being used in fake job advertisements.
2. Tell candidates what your recruiters will never do
Employers can publish a short recruitment-safety statement explaining their normal hiring process.
For example, organisations can make clear that they:
- Do not charge candidates recruitment fees.
- Do not require candidates to purchase equipment or training.
- Do not make offers without an interview.
- Use official company email addresses.
- Do not ask candidates to move recruitment conversations to unofficial channels without a legitimate reason.
The exact statement should reflect the organisation's actual recruitment process.
3. Use available verification features
Platforms such as LinkedIn provide verification features for eligible profiles, pages and other recruitment-related activity.
Where available, verification can give candidates another way to assess whether the person or organisation contacting them is genuine.
However, employers should not rely on verification alone. Clear information on their own careers site remains important.
4. Monitor your brand
Someone within HR, recruitment, communications or security should periodically check for:
- Fake job advertisements using the company name
- Cloned employee profiles
- Suspicious recruiter accounts
- Unauthorised use of company logos or branding
- Reports from candidates about unusual recruitment messages
Suspicious accounts and advertisements should be reported through the relevant platform and to the appropriate scam-reporting authority.
5. Warn employees and departing staff
Employees leaving an organisation may become more visible to scammers when they update their profiles or indicate that they are open to work.
A short scam-awareness notice in redundancy or outplacement materials can help departing employees recognise suspicious approaches.
The same information can also be useful for current employees, particularly recruitment and talent acquisition teams whose profiles may be more likely to be impersonated.
Healthcare shows the value of a coordinated response
Employers do not have to tackle recruitment scams individually.
Between September 2024 and March 2025, Australia's National Anti-Scam Centre ran a job scam fusion cell involving government, law enforcement, academics and private-sector organisations.
The initiative focused partly on fake job scams targeting healthcare workers and jobseekers.
The experience showed the value of organisations sharing information and providing candidates with clear guidance about legitimate recruitment practices.
For employers, the broader lesson is that scam prevention works better when it becomes part of the recruitment process rather than something addressed only after a candidate reports a problem.
Trust is becoming part of the recruitment experience
Candidates already have to decide whether a job is worth applying for. Increasingly, they also have to decide whether the person contacting them is genuine.
That makes trust part of the employer's recruitment experience.
A clear careers page, recognisable company email addresses, transparent hiring processes and simple scam warnings can give candidates more confidence when evaluating an opportunity.
For HR teams, protecting the employer brand therefore means more than preventing misuse of the company name. It also means making it easy for genuine candidates to recognise when a recruitment opportunity is real.
The easier it is to verify a legitimate job, the harder it becomes for a fake recruiter to look convincing.
