Job search scams can drain hundreds or even thousands of dollars from an applicant, but one recent fake interview scheme reached far beyond an individual victim. Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Tuesday that it had suffered a security breach affecting $6.34 billion in digital assets, an intrusion made possible in part by fraudulent job interviews.
Although the attackers behind the Binance incident were chasing a far bigger prize than a typical job seeker, employment scams overall are climbing. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded roughly $363 million in employment-related losses in 2025, a steep jump from $264 million the year before and just $70 million in 2023. The real total is probably larger, since many victims never come forward.
Scammers have a wide pool of targets right now "because the job search is taking so long for so many right now," said Stefanie Fackrell, a former recruiter at Google and Nvidia. The October jobs report offered some encouragement, with the U.S. economy adding 165,000 jobs, well above expectations, yet many applicants have spent months stuck in a low-hire, low-fire market.
"With today's job market, people are anxious, they're tired, many are at their wits' end," said Leeza Garber, a privacy and cybersecurity expert and adjunct law professor at Drexel University's Kline School of Law. "A proactive inquiry can be something you just immediately respond to without thinking." Artificial intelligence is adding to the problem. "Cyber scams in general are becoming much more sophisticated just because they're evolving at the same speed as AI and public access to AI," Garber said. "AI is going to make things seem more and more real." Victims reported nearly $13 million in losses to AI-involved employment scams in 2025, according to the IC3.
In the Binance case, an unnamed software engineer was approached through "a legitimate job-hunting platform" by someone posing as a project director, the exchange said. The engineer was set up for a first interview with a supposed HR representative and a second round with the purported CEO of a fake company. Fackrell said warning signs include a headshot that looks clearly AI-generated, thin profile activity and few connections. On LinkedIn, users can click the three dots on a profile to open an "About this member" panel showing when the person joined and whether they verified their identity, workplace and school. She added that a C-suite executive joining a second-round interview is unusual unless the candidate would report directly to that person.
During the first round, the fake HR representative held a live video interview and even shared a social media account filled with personal photos and videos to build trust, a tactic Binance described as "more advanced and deceptive than previously seen social engineering approaches." Fackrell said recruiters may legitimately mention shared connections like an alma mater, but offering personal social media in a first interview is strange. Garber said video red flags can include the other person moving oddly slowly, failing to answer a question, or a visual that skips a beat.
The second-round interview took place on "a popular social chat app," and the engineer was told to download an "assignment" containing a malicious code repository onto his work computer. Fackrell noted that interviews typically run through Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet, not social chat apps. She advised against downloading unfamiliar software for take-home assignments, said such materials should arrive through legitimate email systems, and recommended taking interviews on a personal device rather than a work computer.
Among the common schemes circulating now: fake recruiters who claim a resume must be professionally rewritten for a fee before a candidate can be considered; phony job offers that require paying for equipment, sometimes by depositing a fake check and returning "excess" funds, or that demand sensitive details like ID, bank account numbers or a Social Security number; and text messages promising easy money for liking social media posts or leaving reviews, which usually end with the worker being asked for their own cash.
The Federal Trade Commission stresses that no one should have to hand over payment or sensitive information to land a job. Genuine recruiters write from corporate email addresses, while pressure to move fast and communications riddled with typos are classic warning signs. "Do your research before clicking, responding or engaging with anybody," Fackrell said. Garber suggests pausing to consider how you were contacted and what is being asked of you, and checking postings against a company's official careers page. "If seems too good to be true, it definitely is," she said.
