A recruiter reaches out. They tell you you’re a good candidate for a senior role or board seat. The opportunity is plausible, but edging into the too-good-to-be-true zone. That’s exactly what happened over a year ago to an operations executive who contacted me. I’m an executive and board résumé writer.
They wrote: “I want to confirm you’re the person I’ve been communicating with about the résumé for [X Hospital]. Could you please verify?”
I replied: “No, we have not communicated.”
They followed with: “I’ve been working with a supposed recruiter at [X Hospital] on a position. She asked me to update my résumé and said she’d used you many times. She told me to write to you at [email address] and provided specific wording to use. When I emailed the person posing as you, we had a few back-and-forth emails. I became slightly suspicious and asked to speak on the phone. She never responded after that.”
This executive was smart. They stopped before paying someone who was impersonating me to write their résumé.
Another executive wasn’t as fortunate. They emailed me: “I wanted to verify one point independently. [Jane Doe] originally referred me to you for the Executive Board Advisory profile work. Can you please confirm whether you have a working relationship with Jane?”
I replied: “This is the first time I have heard from you. I don’t know [Jane Doe]. I found one unverified LinkedIn profile for someone with that name in the US. If that’s your person, the lack of profile verification is a red flag.”
By then, they had already paid several hundred dollars to an impersonator.
I’ve shared two versions of the same scam, one involving a supposed internal recruiter and another involving a supposed third-party executive search consultant. Unfortunately both types, and others like them, are proliferating.
I talked with Stacy Donovan Zapar about this. She’s a consultant who recruits and trains recruiters. Her work has made her deeply familiar with candidate and recruiter fraud. Stacy says the recruiter-to-résumé-writer scam works because almost every detail the scammers provide is real. They use real names, websites, headshots, and LinkedIn profile links. They impersonate real people. If you Google them, everything looks legitimate.
But a Google search or LinkedIn profile check isn’t enough. Here’s how to protect yourself.
What to do when an unknown recruiter contacts you
First, understand that unfamiliar recruiter outreach now requires verification. AI has made it easier for fraudsters to send polished, convincing messages at scale. People targeted by this scam have repeatedly told me the communications were believable.
Next, don’t share information with an unknown recruiter until you’re sure they are who they say they are. Otherwise, you could fall for a phishing scam.
Here are the three major warning signs you have a problem:
1. The recruiter is writing to you from a personal email address rather than a company domain.
2. They want you to send them, or a résumé writer they recommend, money for new career documents. You don’t know them. They initiated contact. They want you to send money.
3. They create urgency to get those documents produced quickly.
The Association of Executive Search Consultants has an even longer list of red flags.
How to verify the recruiter
Ask them to email you from their corporate domain. If they won’t, you have your answer. If they do, compare that domain carefully with the company’s official website and email addresses. Look for misspellings, extra words, and other small but critical differences.
If anything looks off, stop. If the recruiter is fake, the job and the résumé writer aren’t real either.
If you think the recruiter is fake, halt communications with them. This is a situation where it’s OK to ghost someone. Block them and be done. Report the suspected fraud to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and to the FBI at IC3.gov.
And tell other executives about the scam. It works because it looks legitimate. The more people know about it and understand it, the harder the deception becomes.
