NRWA Job Seeker Safety Center
Protect your job search. Verify who you are dealing with. Know what to do next.
A job search requires you to share your career history, contact information, and sometimes highly sensitive personal data with people you have never met. Most recruiters, employers, resume writers, and career coaches are legitimate professionals. Some are not. Scammers now use artificial intelligence, copied websites, stolen identities, and real company branding to appear credible. Polished messages are no longer proof that the person behind them is real.
If something feels wrong right now…
Pause before you send more information, click another link, deposit a check, or make a payment. Save the messages and offer details first. Then use the section below that best matches where you are.
Job Searching & Something Feels Off?
Start Where You Are
I am trying to decide whether a recruiter or job offer is real or a scam.
Compare what you are seeing with common patterns, including impersonated recruiters, text-only interviews, fake checks, task scams, and paid resume referrals.
I want to check a resume/career professional before I hire.
Learn what membership in the NRWA represents, why the NCRW is the gold standard in resume-writing certification, how NCOPE identifies current LinkedIn expertise, and how to verify a professional before paying.
I already sent money, personal information, or account details.
Take the right steps based on what was exposed, preserve evidence, contact the appropriate institution, and file reports with agencies that track fraud.
THREE RULES THAT PREVENT MANY JOB-SEARCH SCAMS
1. Do not pay for the promise of a job. A legitimate employer does not charge you to be considered, interviewed, hired, trained, or equipped for a job. A career professional may charge for an optional service, but purchasing that service should never be a condition of employment.
2. Verify through a channel you find yourself. Do not rely on the phone number, email address, website, or verification link supplied by the person you are checking. Find the company’s official website independently and contact it through a published channel.
3. Give yourself permission to slow down. A legitimate opportunity will withstand reasonable questions and independent verification. Urgency that prevents you from checking is not a reason to move faster. It is a reason to stop.
WHY NRWA CREATED THIS CENTER
The National Resume Writers’ Association (NRWA), now also known as NRWA: The Association of Career Strategy & Branding Professionals, is a nonprofit professional association dedicated to standards, ethics, and demonstrated expertise in career strategy and branding. The Job Seeker Safety Center is part of the NRWA’s Career Services Trust Initiative, created to help the public make better-informed decisions in a marketplace where professional-looking content can be produced or copied in seconds.
This guidance is free and available to everyone. NRWA’s directories give job seekers a direct way to find established professionals and verify the credentials that the NRWA stands behind. When you need resume-writing expertise, look for the NCRW (Nationally Certified Resume Writer): the gold standard in resume-writing certification. When you need specialized LinkedIn expertise, look for the NCOPE (Nationally Certified Online Profile Expert) and confirm that the professional’s annual certification is current.
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