The Fake Job Offer and Overpayment Check Scam: How It Works and How to Spot It

You answered an online ad or a message on a job board for a customer service position, a data entry clerk, or a personal assistant. The pay is generous, the hours are flexible, and the interview was surprisingly easy. A few days later, you get a letter of offer and a check in the mail. The instructions say to deposit the check, use part of the money to buy a laptop or office equipment from an approved vendor, and then wire the remaining amount back to the company for training or software setup. This is not a job. This is a crime called the overpayment check scam, and it is aimed squarely at people who are desperate for honest work.

Here is how it plays out. The “employer” is actually a criminal who has posted a fake job listing on a legitimate site or sent you a text or email out of nowhere. They want you to act fast. There is no real interview, or if there is, it is done through a chat app or a quick phone call that feels too casual. They often claim the company is expanding and they are too busy for a formal process. Once you accept, they send you a check that looks printed from a real bank, complete with watermarks and a routing number. The amount is always more than you need for the “purchase.” The extra money covers the vendor, who is also part of the scam, or the shipping fee, which is actually you sending your own money to the criminal.

You deposit the check. Your bank is required to make the funds available within a few days, but that does not mean the check is real. It can take a week or two for the bank to discover it is counterfeit. In the meantime, you buy the equipment from the “approved vendor” using the money from the check, or you wire the balance through a money transfer service. A few days later, the check bounces. The bank takes the full amount back from your account, along with a fee. You are now out the money you wired or spent, and you have no job. The criminal is gone. The vendor was fake. The equipment never existed, or if it did, it went to an address that cannot be traced.

People aged 45 to 64 are prime targets for this scam because you often have solid credit, a checking account with some balance, and a willingness to follow instructions after a tough job search. Scammers know you are less likely to question a check than a struggling twenty-year-old would be. They also know you might be embarrassed to admit you fell for it. Do not be silent. But more importantly, learn the warning signs before you cash anything.

A legitimate employer will never send you a check before you start work. They will never ask you to purchase supplies from a particular vendor, let alone use their own check to do it. They will never instruct you to wire money back. Wiring money is like sending cash. Once it is gone, you cannot get it back. If a job offer comes with a check for overpaying fees, equipment, or training, it is automatically a scam. Throw the check away. Do not call the number on the letter, because that goes straight to the criminal.

Other red flags include a recruiter who only communicates through text or messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. Real companies have a phone number you can call and verify. They have a website with a physical address and a history. If the job listing says “no experience needed” but the salary is tens of dollars an hour, be suspicious. If the interview is just a few typed questions and you get the job within a day, that is not a sign of efficiency. That is a hook waiting to snap.

You should also be wary of any job that involves receiving and reshipping packages. That is another version of this same fraud. The criminal sends you goods purchased with stolen credit cards, and you repackage and reship them to another address. You get a cut, but you are the one doing the dirty work. When the origin of the goods is traced, the police come to your door, not the scammer.

If you have already deposited a check and wired money, contact your bank immediately and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission and your state attorney general. Also report the listing to the website where you saw it. Acting fast might recover nothing, but it can alert others.

The best defense is simple: treat any unsolicited check as a red flag. A job should pay you, not the other way around. If it asks you to handle money before you have ever set foot in an office or logged into a real system, walk away. There is no legitimate job on this earth where the employer needs you to cash a check and send them part of it. The instant you see that word “overpayment,” read it as “overthink.” That is the moment to close the door, delete the message, and keep looking.