The Job Offer Scam Targeting Teens Looking for Their First Job
It shows up in a DM on Instagram or TikTok, or as a job listing on Kijiji: “Looking for a brand ambassador / social media manager / remote assistant. Flexible hours, good pay, work from home. No experience necessary.”
For a teenager trying to earn their first paycheque, this looks like exactly what they’ve been hoping to find. The person who replies seems professional. They ask about availability, send what looks like an offer letter. It all feels real.
Until it isn’t.
Teens are specifically targeted by job scams — not because scammers think they’re easy to fool, but because they’re actively searching for work, they’re excited about the opportunity, and they haven’t yet built up the pattern recognition that comes from years of knowing how employment actually works. That’s not a character flaw. It’s just inexperience, and scammers exploit it deliberately.
The Three Most Common Versions
The “brand ambassador” or “social media manager” DM
A message arrives on Instagram or TikTok from an account that looks like a small business or influencer-adjacent brand. They’ve “noticed your profile” and think you’d be “perfect” for a paid role. The work involves posting content or promoting their brand.
Once the teen is interested, the ask arrives: to get set up, you need to purchase a starter kit, or pay a registration fee, or buy your own equipment — and you’ll be reimbursed with your first paycheque.
The equipment never arrives. The paycheque never comes. Legitimate employers do not ask you to pay money before you start working. Ever.
The fake job posting with an “equipment deposit”
This version lives on platforms like Indeed or Kijiji. The posting looks normal — reasonable pay, listed location, contact email. The “employer” conducts an interview over text message or email and makes an offer quickly.
Then they ask for a deposit to ship the equipment you’ll need for the remote role. Or they say there’s a background check fee. Or they need your banking information to “set up direct deposit” before you’ve done a single day of work.
These are all red flags that should stop the process immediately. Real employers do not charge employees before work begins, and they handle payroll setup through official HR processes — not a personal email and an e-transfer.
The overpayment cheque scam
This one is more elaborate and more damaging. The teen receives a cheque — a real-looking cheque — for significantly more than their first week’s pay. The explanation: “our accounting department made an error, please deposit this and wire/transfer the difference back to us.”
The teen deposits the cheque. It clears — because banks often release funds before fully verifying a cheque. They send back the difference. Days later, the cheque bounces. It was fraudulent. The bank reverses the deposit, and the teen is now personally responsible for the money they sent.
This scam has left Canadian teenagers with unexpected debt of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Banks treat the account holder as responsible for deposited funds, even when those funds come from fraudulent cheques.
Why Teens Don’t Catch These Sooner
None of these scams announce themselves as scams. They look like job opportunities. And teenagers who’ve applied to a dozen places and heard nothing back are naturally excited when someone responds quickly and seems interested in them.
There’s also the issue of not knowing the rules. Most adults know instinctively that no legitimate employer asks employees to pay before starting. Teenagers don’t have that baseline — it’s not something that gets taught in school, and they may not want to ask a parent and seem naive.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) received 108,878 fraud reports in 2024, and employment scams consistently appear among the top categories. Canadians reported $492 million in total fraud losses that year — a significant portion of which came from scams that looked like legitimate opportunities.
What to Tell Your Teen
The conversation doesn’t need to be a lecture. One honest observation lands better than a list of rules:
“Most job scams targeting people your age have one thing in common: they ask you to pay money, handle money, or give out banking info before you’ve actually started working. That’s not how real jobs work.”
Encourage them to run anything that feels slightly off by you before responding. Not because you’ll say no — because two sets of eyes spot the pattern faster than one.
One Thing to Do
Before accepting any job that requires you to pay money upfront, handle money on behalf of the employer, or provide banking details before your first day — talk to a parent or trusted adult first.
If you’re a parent reading this: share that sentence with your teenager today, and tell them they won’t be judged for asking.