As cost-of-living pressures increase, Australian job-seekers are becoming more vulnerable to scams. New LinkedIn research reveals that the financial stress making some more likely to take risks in their job search.
Findings from LinkedIn’s Job Search Safety Pulse report reveal that two thirds (65%) of Australian professionals have decided not to apply for a role they were interested in because they weren’t confident it was legitimate.
For 37% of people this isn’t a one off, it’s happened multiple times. It shows that fear of scams is no longer an annoyance, it’s changing how we look for work.
A combination of lack of awareness and pressure is creating risk in how people approach job searches. With ongoing cost-of-living pressures, nearly half (49%) of Australian professionals say financial stress would make them more likely to take risks when applying for jobs, with 35% saying they’d be somewhat more likely to let their guard down.
“Job application anxiety” rises as job scams become more widespread
Research reveals that questioning whether a job is “actually real” has become a routine part of the job search. 61% of Australians have seen a job they suspected was a scam, one in four (27%) have come close to falling for one, and 16% have actually been a victim – rising to 25% for Gen Z.
For 61% of Australians, two things immediately flag a job as a scam: being asked for upfront fees, or having to share sensitive information – like bank details or a passport – too early in the process. High-pressure tactics are also a major warning sign, with nearly half (48%) saying that being rushed into a decision quickly shifts a role from an opportunity to an uncertainty.
LinkedIn platform data shows that scammers frequently exploit these early moments by attempting to move conversations off trusted platforms. Nine in 10 (90%) of reported scam attempts redirect members to personal messaging apps, where accounts are harder to verify and conversations feel more informal. And over half of all off‑platform attempts happen in the very first message, before any meaningful context or trust has been established.
Gen Z most exposed to job scams
Brendan Wong, LinkedIn Career Expert, said: “Today’s job scams are increasingly sophisticated. Because they are deliberately engineered to look authentic and pressure you to act quickly, they can be more difficult to spot. We block the vast majority of scams before they reach our members, and our focus is on strengthening transparency across the platform. From identity verification to clearer trust signals, we want to support job-seekers in making informed decisions and move forward with confidence.”
How LinkedIn Is Helping Reduce Job Search Risk
LinkedIn uses a three‑layer defence against job scams, designed to help members make more informed decisions:
- Detection: Proactively stopping fake accounts, scam messages and fraudulent job postings before members see them. As a result, the vast majority of detected scam activity is stopped before members ever see it.
- Verification: Providing clearer trust signals at the moments that matter most, including verifications for companies, recruiters, jobs and the ability to apply and communicate on LinkedIn to stay within built-in security protections.
- Protection: LinkedIn has recently introduced new measures which help keep job-seekers safe, including requiring ID verification for high-risk job posters, reducing visibility of posts and comments that may be more likely to be scams, and enhanced spam filtering and detection systems.
Practical Advice for Job‑Seekers
LinkedIn encourages job‑seekers to:
Pause during early outreach, especially if roles or messages feel rushed or vague
Verify who’s behind a role by checking company pages, recruiter profiles and verification badges
Be cautious of requests to move conversations off‑platform too quickly
Report suspicious activity to help protect the wider community
Australians lost around $24.4 million to job and employment scams in 2025 alone, alongside an additional $4 million between January to March 2026, as reported by Scamwatch.
Source: LinkedIn Job Search Safety Pulse, Censuswide survey of 500 Australian professionals aged 18+ working full time or part time, May 2026
