Federal, state, and local governments hire constantly, and scammers exploit the trust in a government job to run fee scams and data-harvesting cons. A real government job has a clear, free application path. A government job offer that involves payment or pressure does not.
Signs a government job offer is fake
Walk away if any of these is true:
- It asks you to pay a fee to apply, to train, to be certified, or to secure the position.
- It asks for your Social Security number or bank details before an official offer through a government HR system.
- It promises guaranteed placement, or sells access to a list of government jobs.
- It arrived by unsolicited text, social media, or email and skips any formal application.
Where real federal jobs live
Almost every federal job is posted on USAJOBS.gov, the government's official hiring site, and applying is free. The government never charges you to apply for or get a federal job. State and local roles are posted on official .gov sites for that agency. If someone asks for money for a government job, or for a government job list, it is a scam, because those listings are public and free.
The fee scam in detail
A common version sells a guide or application service for postal or federal jobs, for information you can get free on USAJOBS.gov or usps.com/careers. Another asks for personal data up front to pre-qualify you, then uses it for identity theft. The FTC has warned about both. A genuine agency verifies your identity later, through its own secure systems, not through a recruiter in a chat app.
Check the offer now
Paste the message into the free job checker for an evidence-backed verdict in seconds. Report a government-job scam to the FTC, and if you shared personal details, follow the recovery checklist.