Good morning leaders.
This week I wanted to tackle a worrying trend as we ramp up to hiring season. The job scams and the scam market.
Remember if you missed last week’s music infused deep dive by Paul Thomas you can always read it here, there has been some brilliant feedback on here and on LinkedIn.
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Now onto how to protect yourself against bad actors:
By Danny Denhard - Coaching marketing & growth leaders, consulting with marketplaces and challenger brands and advising business & marketing leaders.
Today there are two parts, part 1 a real life story and then part 2, clear ways to protect ourselves against the problems we are facing.
Part I: Inside Look At A Very Realistic Scam
Picture this, you open your emails and you have a headhunter offering you a chance at a dream job.
The job spec is almost perfect, you tick almost every box and you’ve seen the CEO being a little critical of the marketing.
It has the perfect title, huge salary, tailored to your background and wants to discuss in more detail.
So you do a quick check, you see the person in seat, you check the latest round of podcasts and high profile interviews, and it all seems to align.
You do a quick LinkedIn search, the exec headhunter comes up in a search and you think ok, seems legit…
You send your updated CV/resume, you have numerous back and fourths and then you’re asked for a couple of documents you haven’t heard of.
So you do some due diligence with friends out in the States, you speak to people you trust here and all seems ok.
So, you go for it.
A question comes up, do you have a professional executive document reviewer?
They can ensure you match against what the hiring committee looks for and ensure you can go as far as possible.
You submit your details and the hiring manager and first rounds of checks need a specific format doc, the hiring committee has asked for this specific document format and you have to complete two docs.
The recruiter recommends someone and recommends you reach out.
You think about it, you think lets explore some more.
You reach out, and the prices come back; there are 3 paid packages. Low, medium and extremely high.
The alarm bells should go off, but everything seems to be kosher so far.
You do some research and you find a couple of issues, some warning signs, but everything else seems ok…right?
This is where you should stop, but if you decide to go further, they’ll nudge you on iMessage or WhatsApp, they’ll use the fear tactic of missing deadlines.
They can become a little more pushy, they can provide company information, bank information and even offer references…
This is just one risk executives face in this job market.
There are many more scams but this seems the most sophisticated one out there. I know a handful of people who have fallen into this trap. I know someone who even went through rounds of interviews and then the headhunter suddenly completely disappeared.
So I dive into how we can protect ourselves below.
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Part II: How The Playbooks Work And How To Protect Yourself
Exec targeting is not random. It is built on repeatable, well tested playbooks that borrow language, timing and process from legitimate executive search. With modern tooling it is simple to clone real processes and automate most of it.
Here are 3 of the most common patterns, followed by practical guardrails.
1. The “Phantom” Executive Search Firm
Here, scammers impersonate or invent a retained search firm.
They will often:
Register lookalike domains that are one character off a real firm, or simply steal the name and online presence of an existing boutique.
Populate profiles with stolen photos and bios, usually lifted from real recruiters or executives.
Build a site with an AI generated look and feel, retelling other firms’ case studies and stories to back up the pitch you receive on email or LinkedIn.
Lead with a “confidential” mandate, often a stealth scale up, a PE backed turnaround, or an unannounced C suite replacement.
The process is structured and familiar:
A discovery call
A “culture fit” conversation
A technical, assignment or working project interview, sometimes even a supposed call with the “Chair” or “Founder”
Each stage is there to build trust and lower your guard, while collecting personal, corporate and financial information.
2. The Extortionate Resume And Branding Review
Once trust is built, the conversation shifts and quick.
The supposed hiring manager or partner explains that the board is “very particular” about how candidates are presented.
They may:
Insist you use their “preferred partner” to rewrite your executive summary, leadership narrative or board profile.
Position it as a necessary investment to “present you properly at this level,” with fees often starting around $/£1k and going up from there. The assumption is that executives have both the money and the time.
Use time pressure: “the board is reviewing a small slate this week,” “we need this locked in before the next committee.”
The work, if it appears at all, is usually generic.
More recently the work is of a decent quality, which makes the scam feel more legitimate.
Their real goal? It is the upfront fee, not the placement.
Sending you completed documents is simply part of the theatre or game for them.
There are now entire fake companies built with AI site builders, with edited stock photos, edited scraped Glassdoor reviews to make it seem legit and even going to the lengths of faking Companies House entries are all steps people take to appear real in the UK.
Similar steps are taken in the US and Canadian markets with many creating LLCs and equivalents.
3. The High Profile Job Ads And Application Racket
A newest variant is the fake high profile job ad.
You see an attractive role. You apply. They accept your application, set up a call, and then you never move past “the first round.”
The point is not to hire. It is to capture your CV, your personal information and, ideally, more data they can monetise or abuse later.
Many of these are run almost end to end with AI automation and unfortunately off the shelf tools:
Posting ads across platforms
Running short, automated interviews
Sending follow up and rejection emails
The tells:
Poor grammar or slightly off language
Basic automation errors
Low quality avatars or edited stock imagery that feels out of sync with the brand.
A site that looks polished at a glance, but falls apart when you read it closely or aloud. The words are fine but not how real operators in that space talk.
In all cases, check:
The site, including domain age and registration
The sites template - You likely should be able to spot an AI site, they all look and feel the same
The names and email addresses
The actual companies behind the job ads
Practical Guardrails To Protect Yourself
Here are guardrails that will protect you and where need your organisation.
Start with the basics. Read the full email address, character by character. Is it a cheap TLD instead of .com?
Is it a low cost domain option you have never seen associated with that brand?
Is there an extra letter in the name? Does the format match the real firm’s email pattern? A single character can be the difference between a trusted brand and a clone.
Use cross channel verification as standard.
If a recruiter emails you, find their official profile on LinkedIn or on the firm site and reach out there: “I received an email from this address about a mandate. Can you confirm it is legitimate?”
In some setups, fake recruiters claim to work for the brand on LinkedIn, so check work history, connections and activity. If you try to connect or ask for confirmation and only silence, or the firm itself does not recognise them, treat it as a major warning sign.
Genuine search partners respect careful candidates.
🫶 Please consider sharing on LinkedIn to help industry peers to protect themselves, or share your preferred WhatsApp group, just hit share or copy and paste → https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/p/95
Follow the money! In legitimate executive search, candidates do not pay to be placed.
If you are asked to pay for anything linked to consideration, CV or resume rewrites, coaching, clearances or onboarding kits, treat it as a hard red flag. There are professional services that can and do help here but usually high-end executive search firms roll this into the service.
There are good reasons to invest in your own development or personal brand. Those decisions should be yours, on your timeline, and not conditional on a single “opportunity.”
Please watch out for the platform shifts.
If a process moves quickly from corporate email and LinkedIn to WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal, be alert, especially if this happens before any formal documentation. Signal will protect identity and phone numbers as it is privacy driven by default.
Sometimes secure channels are appropriate. Often, in these cases, they are about reducing traceability and oversight.
It is not that executives should never use these tools. The issue is speed and insistence. Moving there very early and keeping everything there is a clear warning sign.
Here are two other approaches being leveraged:
Region Specific Scams: There are also region‑specific scam patterns, e.g. visa‑linked “sponsorship” fees, relocation scams, many large companies will pay for relocation but many are falling into the trap of following international work and relocation and is a big long scam that you invest time and money in.
Niche Approaches: There are elaborate scams that sit inside of alternative recruiting channels, industry specific Discords, localised and tech focused Slack communities and some have moved towards industry forums) where fake roles are seeded.
🚩 Beware Of Big Brand Name Scams: Right Now: There are ongoing and scams using Airbnb, Netflix, Spotify and Google, major tech companies are prone targets.
Beware: Unsuccessful Interview Work & Presentations Are Being Implemented
When I reached out to industry colleagues, many suggested how their interview work and interview presentations are now being used and deployed after unsuccessful interviews.
Unfortunately, this isn’t new but is becoming more common and some of these are interviews are coming through recruitment firms and exec headhunters.
This is a tricky and sensitive topic for many different personality and conflict averse people. Here are a ways we can protect ourselves here?
Manage expectations up front: Only present your presentation/worksheet but do not share the breakdown pre or post interview. This can be declared upfront to manage any awkward conversations.
Treat interview decks as strong previews of your thinking, not fully detailed plans: you can manage this expectation from early in the process. This enables you focus on diagnosis, options, and priorities rather than complete campaigns and roadmaps, and they still need your judgment
Only share high‑level thinking and anonymised past examples: avoid building a custom, plug‑and‑play plan, especially financial models and budgeting
Document what you shared (you can record online interviews/transcribe etc), when and how: this will create a timeline and will allow you to call out bad behaviours, directly or through recruitment company. More frequently we are seeing horror stories shared on LinkedIn without real information which isn’t helping this behaviour
Send over a NDA: This is becoming a more normal practise and potential legal ways to protect your work if used and provides a way to be paid for your work.
None of these are fool proof however a few practical ways to protect ourselves and our sanity.
Ambition, Curiosity And Caution
I personally know COOs, CFOs and co-founders who have been caught in elaborate schemes and been burnt in interview “work” being used post unsuccessful process.
I have also seen suspect roles in WhatsApp groups and private communities being shared. People being helpful and wanting to help industry peers with roles, unfortunately this is how many scammers have worked out how to play the scale game.
Many of the smartest people I know have been single out and some pulled into these operations.
Our ambition is not the problem in executive leadership, it’s often the point of our leadership.
Wanting bigger mandates, harder challenges and more meaningful work is healthy.
However, in this market, though, ambition without structured scepticism is a liability.
The best employers and search firms will expect you to check who they are and what they are asking you to step into. Taking a moment to read the domain properly, validate the recruiter, or push back on any request for payment is not being awkward, it is being professional.
At the C-suite level, that mix of curiosity and caution is not just self preservation. It is what modern, responsible leadership looks like and we have to protect ourselves first.
I know how tough it is out there and Harry has shared a number of his personal challenges when he was job hunting. So, I hope you found this MU useful, if you have experienced any of these and would like to share your story (we will happily share anonymously and pseudonymously (where we share non distinguishable information you choose to share) to protect industry colleagues, please do share to mu@dannydenhard.com or hit reply.
I would love to keep this post updated with the new and updated scams, so if you receive any, please do reach out.
3x hand selected marketing inspirations from this week:
🍩 The surprise Krispy Kreme x Pokémon collab - catch them if you can…
🍸I dipped into the Gordon’s archive and found this gem from the 1970s
Bonus: If you’d to dive into football sponsorship and the evolution in the Premier League, I took a deeper dive on my blog (yes, I still blog).
Thanks for reading today and have a good weekend.
We will see you again next Friday.
— Danny Denhard (come say 👋 on email or on LinkedIn)
PS: If there are certain sections you’d like to share with friends and colleagues to protect them, you can copy and paste the following:
Phantom Exec Search Firm - https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/i/211014325/1-the-phantom-executive-search-firm
The Extortionate Resume & Personal Branding Review - https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/i/211014325/2-the-extortionate-resume-and-branding-review
The Scam Job Ad Racket - https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/i/211014325/3-the-high-profile-job-ads-and-application-racket
How To Protect Yourself - https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/i/211014325/practical-guardrails-to-protect-yourself
Unsuccessful Interview Work & Presentations Work Being Implemented Scam - https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/i/211014325/beware-unsuccessful-interview-work-and-presentations-are-being-implemented
Worth being extra vigilant if you're job hunting - AI allows these scams to increase in both volume and quality