AI Job Scams Hit 10 States Hard in FTC 2024–2025 Data

For security teams, the job scam wave is a social-engineering campaign at scale. FTC reports from 2024–2025 show fraudsters using generative AI to craft convincing fake postings and recruiter personas, then converting victims into sources of personal information, upfront payments and financial account access. The attack surface is no longer just email—it's every career board and social platform where a hiring offer can appear.

SmartAsset's 2026 analysis of Federal Trade Commission data shows that employment scams increased in a group of U.S. states between 2024 and 2025, with the syndicated report highlighting the top 10 states where reports of 'Job Scams and Employment Agencies' rose most sharply. The Better Business Bureau describes employment scams as among the most common forms of consumer fraud, and the trend is moving in the wrong direction. The study's two most recent years of FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data were aggregated by state and used to rank states by reports per 1 million residents in 2025 and by percentage change over the prior year.

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SmartAsset's 2026 analysis of Federal Trade Commission data shows that employment scams increased in a group of U.S.

The mechanism driving the rise is important. Scammers are no longer relying on obvious phishing emails alone. They use career boards, social media and increasingly capable generative AI tools to impersonate recruiters and publish fake openings that look legitimate enough to pass a quick review. Many fraudulent offers promise flexible hours and unusually high pay, which is particularly effective in a labor market where hybrid and remote work are broadly accepted. Victims are often asked to provide personal information, make up-front payments for supposed equipment or training, or grant access to financial accounts—turning a job search into identity theft, financial loss, or an account takeover scenario.

Methodologically, the study works from FTC Consumer Sentinel reports categorized as 'Job Scams and Employment Agencies.' This is a meaningful category because it captures complaints submitted by consumers themselves, which makes the data a proxy for reported victimization rather than the total universe of scams. The two-year comparison matters because it removes some of the noise of annual spikes and shows whether job scams are accelerating. The report also normalizes by state population, ranking states by reports per 1 million residents in 2025, and compares that with percentage growth, which helps distinguish between large-state totals and more concentrated risk in smaller states.

The expert commentary in the study adds practical signal. Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago and a faculty affiliate at the University of Michigan, said job seekers should be cautious about poorly written advertisements, recruiters who avoid video conversations, requests for fees or sensitive information, and offers that come too fast with high salaries. He links the prevalence directly to hybrid and remote work, which makes it easier for a scammer to justify never meeting a candidate in person. That dynamic has also shifted the burden of fraud detection onto job seekers at the exact moment when AI-generated text and images can make fake postings look more polished than many real employer listings.

For employers and talent teams, the rise of job scams carries reputational and operational costs. When scammers impersonate a company or its recruiters, the legitimate employer may never know until a confused applicant reaches out or reports the incident. Candidate distrust can depress response rates to real postings, increase ghosting, and force recruiting teams to spend more time proving that their process is authentic. Talent acquisition functions may need to audit where their jobs are republished, adopt verifiable application domains, and publish clear guidance about what they will never ask a candidate to pay or provide.