How to spot fake job ads and ghost jobs in the UK (2026)

A fake job ad and a ghost job are not the same thing, and mixing them up wastes a different kind of time. A fake ad is trying to take something from you: a fee, your identity documents, or a CV full of personal data sent to a person who does not work where they claim. A ghost job is a real employer's advert for a role they are not actually filling. You can lose an evening to either. The checks are not identical.

This is the 2026 version of the checks I would do before I spent an hour tailoring a CV. None of them prove a job is genuine. They tell you when to slow down. If you want a second pass on the wording, the free ghost job checker scores the listing you paste in. Read the advert first. The tool is the second look, not the first.

Start with who is asking you to apply

A UK employer that is hiring will usually send you to its own careers site, or to a board you already know, and the company name on the advert will match a company you can find. Search the exact company name in quotes. Look for a Companies House entry if they claim to be a UK limited company, and look at the careers page, not only the social post that carried the advert.

Be wary of a Gmail, Outlook, or WhatsApp address as the only way to apply, of a domain that is one letter off a real employer, and of a recruiter who will not name the employer at all until you have sent a passport scan. A recruiter can keep a name back for a real search. They do not need your identity documents to tell you the sector and the city.

Fake ads ask you to pay, or to move the conversation off the advert

A genuine UK job does not charge you an application fee, a training fee, a visa fee, or a fee for a certificate of sponsorship. If the message says the role is yours once you pay, it is a fake. That includes adverts that promise visa sponsorship and then ask you to pay the sponsor, or to buy equipment that will be refunded later. The equipment story is an old one. It still arrives.

Pressure is the other tell. "Reply in the next hour or the offer goes." "Add me on Telegram." "Do not tell the agency you spoke to me." A real hiring manager can wait until tomorrow. Move a suspicious thread back to the employer's own site. If there is no such site, stop.

Read the job itself, not the adjectives

Fake and low-effort ads lean on words that could describe any job: dynamic, passionate, rock star, wear many hats, competitive salary, immediate start. Those words are not proof of a fake. They are a reason to look for the sentences that should be there and are not. What will you do on a Tuesday? Who do you report to? Where is the work? What does the pay actually say?

Contradictions are more useful than adjectives. Entry level and ten years' experience in the same paragraph. A senior title and a minimum-wage figure. "Remote, UK" in the title and a requirement to be in an office five days in the body. A closing date that has already passed. A posted date that keeps refreshing while the text never changes. One contradiction is a reason to ask. Three is a reason to walk away.

A ghost job can belong to a real company

Ghost jobs are the quieter problem. The company exists. The logo is real. Nobody is hired, or the role was filled months ago and the advert was left up, or the team is collecting CVs for a job that has not been approved. You will not spot that from the adjectives alone.

Look for a closing date, a named team, and a salary or a band. Look at whether the same advert has been live, unchanged, for a long time. Look at whether the careers page lists the role when the board does. None of those prove intent. A missing salary is common and legal. A missing salary plus a missing date plus a description that could be any department is a pattern, not a verdict.

Check off the advert

Search the job title and the company together. If the only hits are copies of the same advert on ten boards, and the employer's own site is silent, treat it as unverified. If people in that team are posting about the hire, or the role sits on the employer's careers page with the same wording, you are on firmer ground.

For a recruitment agency, ask which client and which site. A straight answer is a good sign. A refusal to say anything until you have sent identity documents is not. You can also apply once, through one route. Sending the same CV through five boards does not make a ghost job real, and it can make you look untracked when a human does open the file.

What to do when it looks wrong

Do not pay. Do not send a passport, a share code, a bank statement, or a National Insurance number to prove you are serious. Those come after a real offer, through a process you can check, not in the first email. Do not install software so they can "see your screen for the interview" unless you already trust the employer and you understand what you are installing.

If you have already sent money or documents, contact your bank and report it. Action Fraud is the national route for fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Police Scotland takes reports of fraud in Scotland. Keep the advert, the URL, and the messages. Then stop replying.

Use a checker, then decide yourself

The ghost job checker is a free CareerPilot tool. You paste the listing. It lists the warning signs it can see, such as a hidden employer, pipeline wording, a request for a fee, an old advert that still says it is urgent, or an apply link we have already seen fail. It also says when it looked and found nothing strong. The total is not proof the advert is fake or genuine, and it does not know whether a particular manager intends to hire.

Use it when the advert is long enough to judge and you are about to spend real time on an application. If several warning signs show up, go back to the checks on this page before you tailor a CV. If nothing strong shows up, you still read the company name and the apply route yourself. A tool that promises certainty about a stranger's vacancy is selling you a comfort it cannot deliver.

The short version: know who is hiring, refuse any fee, and expect the advert to say what the job is. Fake ads fail the first two. Ghost jobs often fail the third, quietly, on a real company's board. Check both before you clear an evening for the application.

Open the ghost job checker

Questions

What is a ghost job?

A listing with little or no real intention to hire. The employer may be real. The role may already be filled, not yet approved, or left online to collect CVs.

What is a fake job ad?

An advert that is not a job. The aim is usually a fee, your identity documents, or your personal data. A request to pay for the role is the clearest sign.

Should I pay a sponsor or an agency to secure a UK job?

No. A genuine employer does not charge you for the application, the visa, or a certificate of sponsorship. Treat a demand for payment as a fake.

Can the ghost job checker prove a job is real?

No. It flags patterns in the text you paste. You still check the employer and the way you are being asked to apply.