Job scams are no longer a fringe problem. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission says reported losses to employment scams jumped from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024, and the number of reports tripled over the same period. Canada's Anti-Fraud Centre warns about the same patterns: fake job offers you never applied for, "tasks for fast money", deposits and fake cheques.
Because Indeed is one of the largest job sites in both countries, it is also where many job seekers first meet a fake posting. This guide answers the question people actually search ("is Indeed known for having more scams than Glassdoor or LinkedIn?"), lists the red flags that official sources agree on, and explains what to do if you already shared data or money.
Does Indeed have more scams than LinkedIn or Glassdoor?
Short answer: nobody publishes the data to prove it. No regulator reports scam rates per job board, and Indeed does not publish how many postings it removes. Any article that gives you a "scams per 1,000 listings" figure for Indeed vs LinkedIn is guessing.
What can be said honestly:
- Volume means exposure. Indeed aggregates a very large number of listings from employers, staffing agencies and career sites. The more postings and the more open the posting process, the more chances for a bad one to slip through. Indeed itself acknowledges that "scammers sometimes manage to get their listings posted" and asks users to report them.
- LinkedIn publishes enforcement numbers, not scam rates. In its Community Report for July-December 2025, LinkedIn says it stopped 88.9 million fake accounts at registration, restricted 24.4 million more proactively, and removed 68.3 million spam and scam items proactively, with 99.7% of fake accounts stopped before any member report. Those numbers show that scam attempts are massive on LinkedIn too; they do not show that LinkedIn is "safer".
- Glassdoor and Indeed are the same group. Both belong to Recruit Holdings, which bought Glassdoor in 2018 for $1.2 billion. Recruit announced in July 2025 that Glassdoor's operations would be folded into Indeed, alongside about 1,300 job cuts across the two companies. Comparing "Indeed vs Glassdoor" on safety is therefore increasingly comparing one company's systems.
- Most damage happens off the platform. The FTC and the FBI describe scams that start with a posting or a message and then move to text, chat apps, email or crypto payments. Wherever you found the job, the moment someone moves you off the platform and asks for money or banking data is the moment to stop.
For LinkedIn-specific scams and ghost jobs, read ghost jobs and LinkedIn scams in 2026. For how the three sites compare on everything else (volume, reviews, salaries), see LinkedIn vs Indeed vs Glassdoor.
The numbers: how big job scams are in the US and Canada
- $12.5 billion: total fraud losses reported to the FTC in 2024, up 25% from 2023.
- $750.6 million: reported losses to job and business-opportunity scams in 2024, up nearly $250 million from 2023 (FTC).
- $90 million to $501 million: reported losses to employment scams, 2020 to 2024, with the number of reports tripling (FTC).
- About 20,000: people who reported "task scams" (gamified fake jobs) to the FTC in just the first half of 2024, versus about 5,000 in all of 2023.
- Canada: the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre lists employment fraud among its main scam types and reported an increase in crypto job frauds (May 2024 bulletin).
12 red flags of a fake job posting or recruiter
These come from the FTC, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and Indeed's own guidance.
- You are asked to pay to get the job. The FTC: "Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job." That includes "training", "equipment" or "certification" fees.
- You receive a cheque and are told to send part of it back. The FTC: "The check is fake and will bounce, and the bank will want you to repay the full amount."
- They want banking or ID details before an offer. Indeed: legitimate employers "don't request banking or federal identifying information until they've hired you" and don't ask for payment card information at all.
- High pay for little work. FTC: an offer that claims "you can make a lot of money in a short period of time with little work" is "almost certainly a scam". The CAFC lists the same sign.
- A job offer for a role you never applied to. (CAFC)
- Web-based email instead of a company domain (a "recruiter" writing from a free email address). (CAFC)
- Tasks to "optimize" apps or products, paid in crypto, with a balance you can see but can't withdraw. The FBI's IC3 warns about jobs that use "the term 'optimization'" and ask you to "make cryptocurrency payments to your employer". These are the task scams behind the FTC's record numbers.
- No references, no real interview. IC3: "The scammer does not require any references as part of the hiring process."
- You are asked to download software or join another platform to get started. (CAFC)
- You are asked to receive or forward money through your own bank account ("payment processor", "financial agent"). This can make you part of money laundering. (CAFC)
- You are asked to recruit other people to unlock your pay. (CAFC)
- A placement firm wants an advance fee to find you a job. The FTC lists upfront fees for placement as a warning sign.
How to check an Indeed posting before you apply
- Find the job on the company's own careers page. If a "Fortune 500" job exists only on Indeed and in a chat app, it is not real.
- Check the email domain of anyone who contacts you against the company's website.
- Look up the company (reviews, business registry, LinkedIn page with real employees). Brand-new pages with generic stock photos are a warning sign.
- Keep the conversation on the platform until you have spoken to a real person on a video or phone call from a company number.
- Never pay, never deposit a cheque, never share your SSN or SIN before a written offer you have verified.
- Report the posting on Indeed with the "report job" option, even if you are not sure.
Applying through official company portals (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS) is safer because the employer controls the page. If you apply on many of them, the AutoApplyMax extension autofills those forms from your profile so you can apply directly on the company's site (you still review and click Submit).
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- Contact your bank immediately to stop or reverse payments and flag the account.
- United States: report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at ic3.gov; if you shared your Social Security number, use IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan.
- Canada: report to your local police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre; if you shared your SIN, contact Service Canada.
- Report the posting or profile to the job site so it is removed for others.
- Change passwords you may have reused and turn on two-factor authentication on your email and job-site accounts.
- Watch for "recovery" scams: anyone who promises to get your money back for a fee is part of the same problem.
Is Indeed safe to use?
Yes, for most searches, if you treat every posting as something to verify rather than something to trust. Indeed, LinkedIn and Glassdoor all carry real jobs from real employers. The rules above are the same on all of them: no payment, no cheques, no banking data before a verified offer, and no moving to a chat app with someone you can't verify.
Frequently asked questions
Is Indeed known for having more scams than Glassdoor or LinkedIn?
There is no public data that measures scam rates per job board, so no one can say that honestly. Indeed carries a very large volume of listings and acknowledges that scammers sometimes get postings through; LinkedIn reports stopping tens of millions of fake accounts and scam items every six months. Scams exist on all of them, and the same red flags apply everywhere.
Are Glassdoor and Indeed the same company?
They belong to the same parent, Recruit Holdings, which acquired Glassdoor in 2018 for $1.2 billion. In July 2025 Recruit announced that Glassdoor's operations would be integrated into Indeed.
How can I tell if a job on Indeed is fake?
Check that the job exists on the company's own careers page, that the recruiter writes from the company's email domain, and that nobody asks you for money, a cheque deposit, banking details or your SSN/SIN before a verified written offer. High pay for little work, crypto payments and moving the conversation to a chat app are strong warning signs.
Do real employers ask you to buy equipment or pay for training?
No. The FTC says honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job. A request to pay for equipment, training or certification, often with a cheque sent to cover it, is a classic scam.
What should I do if I gave a scammer my bank details or SSN?
Call your bank right away, report the scam (ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov in the US; local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in Canada), report the posting to the job site, change reused passwords and, in the US, follow the recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov.
Does AutoApplyMax auto-apply on Indeed?
No. AutoApplyMax auto-applies only on LinkedIn Easy Apply. On Indeed and company career sites it autofills the application form and you review it and click Submit yourself, which also gives you a moment to check the employer.
Sources
- FTC: New FTC data show a big jump in reported losses to fraud, $12.5 billion in 2024 (March 2025)
- FTC Data Spotlight: Paying to get paid: gamified job scams drive record losses (December 2024)
- FTC consumer advice: Job scams
- FBI IC3: Scammers defraud individuals via work-from-home scams (June 2024)
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: Job and employment fraud
- Indeed Career Guide: Job scams: how to identify and avoid them
- LinkedIn: Community Report, July-December 2025
- Glassdoor ownership: Glassdoor (Wikipedia, with links to the original announcements)
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