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Overseas job offers: fake agencies, visa fees, flights and housing you have to pay for

Published October 29, 2026 · Example ads and messages are made up.

Hotel work in Europe, a customer service job in Asia, a season on a farm on the other side of the world. Housing included, great pay, start in a few weeks. There is just one thing: the visa, the flight or the deposit on your room has to be paid now, by you, to the agency that contacted you. This guide covers how to spot fake overseas job offers, which costs are normal and which are not, and why some of these offers are dangerous in ways that go far beyond losing money.

Why jobs abroad are easy cover for scammers

When the employer is in another country, most of the checks you would normally do get harder. You cannot walk past the office. You do not know the local company register. You may not speak the language well. Visa and work permit rules really are complicated and vary from country to country, so a “processing fee” sounds believable. And people planning a move are often in a hurry and hopeful, which scammers count on.

The money requests themselves are not new. What changes is the excuse. Instead of a training course or a starter kit, it is the visa, the plane ticket, the room. The pattern is the same one described in asked to pay before you start a job?, with one extra problem: abroad, it is harder to tell what is normal.

The most common payment requests

Details vary, but the request usually comes after a quick interview, sometimes held entirely over chat, and right after you are told you have been “selected”.

The visa or work permit paid through the agency

Congratulations, the hotel has approved your application for the front desk position! To file your work permit, please pay the consular fees through our agency within 48 hours. We will send your receipt and employment letter right after.

A real visa is applied for with the authorities of the destination country, usually through a consulate, embassy or official visa application center, and any fees are paid there. If someone asks you to send “visa fees” to a personal account, by gift card, by payment app or in crypto, you are not paying for a visa.

The plane ticket booked through “our travel partner”

The flight will be reimbursed with your first paycheck, they say, but it has to be booked through a travel agency they name, which only takes bank transfers. The ticket never arrives, or a fake booking confirmation does.

The housing deposit

“Accommodation is provided by the employer, we just need a deposit to hold your room.” Often the room does not exist. Housing that is genuinely part of a job should be described in the contract, with an address and terms.

Medical exams, insurance, translations, “processing”

After the first payment comes another: a medical exam at a clinic they pick, mandatory health insurance, certified translations, getting your diploma authenticated. Each one has a close deadline and a plausible reason. Each one is another chance to take your money.

What a legitimate recruiter can and cannot charge

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's page on job scams (last updated March 2023) says honest placement firms do not typically charge a fee to job candidates, and that if a placement firm asks you for a fee, especially one you have to pay in advance, you should walk away. It also says honest employers will never ask you to pay to get a job.

In the UK, section 6 of the Employment Agencies Act 1973 bars employment agencies and employment businesses from charging work-seekers a fee for finding them work, apart from specific exceptions set by regulations, such as some entertainment and modeling work. Breaking that rule is a criminal offense. An agency that asks you to pay to be put forward for a hotel or call center job abroad is not following it.

Moving abroad does involve some real costs: a passport, sometimes a visa, travel. Some employers cover them and some do not. The difference is that a genuine cost is paid directly to whoever provides the service, such as the passport office, the consulate or the airline, and that who pays for what is written into your contract before you pay anything. It is not paid to a middleman in a chat, in a rush, by a method that is hard to trace.

Jobs in Europe: EURES, and the people who fake it

If you are an EU or EEA citizen looking for work in Europe, the official job mobility network is EURES, which is exactly why scammers borrow its name. In its guide to spotting fraudulent job offers and misinformation (June 15, 2023), EURES advises checking email domains letter by letter, confirming with its official tool that whoever contacts you is really a EURES member or partner, never responding to a “job offer” that involves sending or receiving money, and never giving bank or card details through online forms during recruitment. It also warns about social media videos falsely claiming that EURES supplies visas.

The most dangerous version: job offers that lead to scam compounds

Some fake overseas job offers are not after your money. They are after you. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, in its travel advice for Myanmar, warns about job offers in Myanmar and neighboring countries that seem too good to be true. It describes cyber scam centers, particularly in the Myawaddy and Tachileik areas, where trafficked victims are forced to carry out online scams in poor conditions; some have had their passports confiscated and been held to ransom. Italy's foreign ministry gives a similar warning in its travel information for Thailand (updated September 22, 2026), advising caution about tech and call center job offers in northern Thailand near the Myanmar border, even ones that look serious.

GOV.UK's advice for women travelling abroad (updated September 8, 2026) adds that these scams can target anyone, but that criminal gangs have sometimes targeted women and used job opportunities as a front for human trafficking or modern slavery. A made-up example of how the offer might look:

International e-commerce company hiring English-speaking customer support agents. Based in Asia, flights and accommodation covered, salary well above average. No experience needed. Interview on Telegram, departure within two weeks.

Red flags to take seriously: pay far above what the role would normally offer, no experience required, a company you cannot identify, an interview held only by chat, pressure to leave quickly, an arrival city that is not where you will work “because we'll drive you there”, or a suggestion to enter on a tourist visa and sort out the paperwork later, which many countries do not allow. If an offer looks like this, do not go.

How to check an overseas job offer

1. Identify the real employer. Legal name, website, office address, registration number in its country. Contact the company through channels you find yourself, not the ones in the ad, and ask whether the role and the person who contacted you are real. The basics are in how to verify a company before a job interview.
2. Check the agency. Who runs it, where it is registered, whether it charges candidates. If it claims to be part of EURES, check on the EURES portal.
3. Get a written contract before you travel, in a language you understand, naming the employer, workplace, duties, hours, pay and who covers travel, visa and housing. If you cannot follow it, have someone qualified read it.
4. Pay genuine costs only to the provider: the consulate or official visa center, the airline. Never to a middleman's personal account, by gift card or in crypto.
5. Read your government's travel advice for the country: GOV.UK foreign travel advice in the UK, the State Department's travel advisories in the US.
6. Talk to people who already work there, finding them yourself rather than through contacts the recruiter gives you.
7. Insist on a video call with someone from the company. Interviews held only in chat are a warning sign: see recruiter on WhatsApp or Telegram.

If you decide to go

• Register your trip if your country offers it. US citizens can enroll in the State Department's free Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), so the nearest embassy can reach them in an emergency.
• Leave copies with someone you trust: your contract, passport, ticket, the exact address of your workplace and housing, and the names of your contacts. Agree on regular check-ins.
• Do not hand over your passport to anyone “for safekeeping” or “for paperwork”. Keep it with you.
• Save the contact details of your embassy or consulate in that country, taken from your government's official website.

If you already paid, or something feels wrong

1. Stop paying, even if they say it is the last fee before departure.
2. Call your bank or the payment service you used and ask whether the payment can be stopped or disputed.
3. If you sent documents such as your passport or Social Security number, watch for misuse in your name. This guide on ID and verification codes explains what to check.
4. Keep the evidence: the ad, chats, emails, any contract you received, payment receipts.
5. Report it. In the US, file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov if the scam happened online or involved crypto. In the UK, report it to Report Fraud, the national service that replaced Action Fraud, at reportfraud.police.uk (England, Wales and Northern Ireland; in Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101).
6. If you or someone you know is already abroad and cannot leave, has had their passport taken or is being forced to work, contact your embassy or consulate. In the US, the National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential and open 24/7 at 1-888-373-7888 or by text to 233733. In the UK, call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 0800 0121 700, or report it online. In an emergency, call local emergency services.

If the offer came from a job ad, you can run it through the job scam checker: chat-only contact, pay far above the market and upfront fees often show up in the text itself.