Scammers Copy Real Data Job Posts. Is Yours One of Them?

The call from a candidate you never met

A hiring manager picks up the phone. The caller says they were hired last week for a remote data analyst job at your company. They did the interview by text. They were sent a check to buy equipment. Now the check has bounced and their bank account is short.

You never posted that job. You never talked to this person. But your company name, your logo and maybe even the name of someone on your team were on every message they got.

What the evidence says

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 24,688 employment scam complaints in 2025, up from 20,044 in 2024 and 15,443 in 2023. Reported losses rose from $70,234,079 in 2023 to $264,223,271 in 2024 and $362,934,762 in 2025. The FBI defines this crime as a person who believes they have a real job and loses money or moves money or goods as part of it.

Oklahoma is in those numbers. The FBI's 2025 state report lists 243 Oklahoma victims of employment scams and $1,753,957 in losses.

The people hit are often the people you want to hire. In 2025, the FBI counted 4,555 employment scam complaints from people aged 20 to 29 and 5,025 from people aged 30 to 39. The report also says victims lost almost $13 million to employment scams that involved AI.

In a public service announcement, the FBI explained how scammers use real employers. They post fake jobs on popular job sites, sometimes right on the official company page. They copy real postings and change the contact details. They use the names of real employees to make the messages look real. The FBI said the average reported loss from this scheme was nearly $3,000 per victim.

How fake posts hurt your hiring

Bad reviews you did not earn

The FBI warns that people who do not know they were scammed may write bad reviews of the real company. Those reviews show up on career sites and social media, right where your next data candidate is looking.

Good candidates who stay away

The FBI also says that if a company is often linked to fake postings, candidates may apply to competitors instead. Data people already have choices. If your name feels risky, they will skip you.

Time your team does not have

Your recruiters and managers end up answering calls and emails from people who applied to jobs that never existed. The FBI notes this costs company time and can wear down trust with customers and investors too.

How to protect your data job posts

1. 1Search the job sites you use and the big general ones for your company name and your open data roles every week, and look for posts you did not create.
2. 2Report any fake post or fake company profile to the site so it gets taken down, and file a report at ic3.gov.
3. 3Learn the security settings on each job site you use, and turn on any option that blocks posts nobody on your team approved.
4. 4Give each recruiter and manager their own login with only the access they need, and stop sharing one email and password across the team.
5. 5Turn on two step login and alerts for changes to your job site accounts, and check for posts and messages you did not send.
6. 6List every open role on your own careers page with the real way to apply and the real contact details.
7. 7Teach anyone who touches hiring how to spot these scams and how to respond kindly when a victim calls, because how you treat them shapes what they say about you.

What this means if you hire data people in Oklahoma

Remote data jobs are easy to copy and easy to believe. A clear post on your own site, a few locked down accounts and a weekly search cost very little. They help protect the people who apply to you and the name you rely on to hire.

It also helps to keep your real hiring process simple to check. When candidates know who will contact them and how, a fake offer stands out fast.

At Oklahoma Data Partners, we recruit only for data roles and only in Oklahoma. We have been data hiring managers ourselves, and we run a hiring process candidates can trust and check. If you want help filling data roles without putting your name at risk, book a consultation.