ACCC: 138 LinkedIn scam reports in July and August 2026 with losses of up to $254,449, as fake recruiters clone real staff profiles and charge jobseekers for CV rewrites and training
ABC News reported on 6 October 2026 that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission received 138 scam reports involving LinkedIn in July and August 2026, with reported losses of up to $254,449. The pattern is recruitment fraud rather than a platform breach: fake job ads, cloned profiles of real recruiters and employees (one jobseeker was approached in the name of a real Aurecon staff member, and Aurecon confirmed it had not contacted him), and offers that end in an upfront fee. A common version, described by Contract Services Australia managing director Mark Hopcroft, is a 'recruiter' who says your CV fails the employer's keyword screening and then offers their own HR specialist to fix it, in his case for about A$8,600 (US$6,000); he only caught it because the role was not on the company's own careers site. Users say approaches rise sharply after switching a profile to 'open to work'. LinkedIn's Job Search Safety Pulse survey found about 16 per cent of Australian respondents say they have fallen for a job scam (25 per cent of Gen Z), 61 per cent have seen an ad they suspected was fake, and nearly half say cost-of-living pressure makes them take more risks. ANZ warned last month that realistic job scams have become a common impersonation scam. Practical checks: confirm any role on the employer's own website, contact the company through a number you look up yourself, and never pay for CV writing, training or equipment to get a job. Report to Scamwatch and, if money was sent, to your bank straight away.
- Product
- LinkedIn (job ads, recruiter messages, cloned profiles)
- Exploited in Australia?
- unknown
Primary: ABC News — Jobseekers exploited by recruitment scammers on LinkedIn (6 Oct 2026) · Vendor: Scamwatch (ACCC) — report a scam · Information Age (ACS) — Australians increasingly targeted by LinkedIn job scams (7 Oct 2026)