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How to verify a company before a job interview

Published October 24, 2026 · Examples are made up.

You have been invited to an interview. Before you go, and before you send any documents, it is worth spending a few minutes finding out who you are actually dealing with: whether the company exists, whether the person who contacted you really works there, and whether the job is the one in the ad. Here are the checks that matter most, roughly in order.

Why check before, not after

Many job scams do not ask for money in the first message. They get you to an “interview”, often over chat, and only then ask for a payment, a photo of your ID or your bank details “for payroll”. In other cases the company is real but the job is not what was advertised. Checking first saves you time and keeps your personal information away from people who should not have it. Everything below uses free public tools and takes no technical skill.

1. The legal name and the company register

A real employer has a legal entity name (something like “… Ltd”, “… LLC” or “… Inc.”) that may differ from its brand name. You will often find it in the website footer, the terms page or the job ad. If you cannot find it, ask. It is a normal question and a legitimate company will answer it.

• In the UK, search the name or company number on Companies House. It is free and shows the registered office address, incorporation date, officers and filing history. Check that the company is active, that it was not set up a few weeks ago, and that its stated business makes sense for the job. Keep in mind that Companies House itself says it does not check the accuracy of what companies file, so a listing proves existence, not honesty.
• In the US, there is no single national register. Companies are registered by state, usually with the Secretary of State or a similar office. Search the business entity database of the state where the company says it is based or incorporated. A record shows that the entity exists and whether it is in good standing; it does not tell you whether the job offer is genuine.

Watch for mismatches. If the recruiter says you are interviewing with a marketing agency and the registered company turns out to be a dormant entity with a different activity in another state or city, something is off. And remember that scammers often borrow the name and details of real companies, which is why the next checks matter just as much.

2. The recruiter's email domain

Look at the address you were contacted from, specifically the part after the “@”. An in-house recruiter normally writes from the company's own domain, the same one as the official website. A made-up example:

Official website: examplelogistics.com
Email you received: [email protected]

The name looks right, but the domain is different. Lookalike domains with a hyphen, an extra word or a different ending are a common trick. Read the address letter by letter. A free email account (Gmail, Outlook and the like) is not automatically a scam, especially with very small businesses, but coming from a supposedly large company it deserves a closer look.

You can also check how old a domain is with ICANN's free ICANN Lookup tool, which shows the registration date for many domains. A domain registered days before an offer from an “established” company proves nothing on its own, but combined with other signs it counts.

If you were contacted by an external recruitment agency, the email will carry the agency's domain. In that case, run the same checks on the agency and ask which client company the role is for.

3. The official careers page

Many employers list open roles on their own website. Get there by typing the address yourself or searching for it, not by clicking links sent in a chat or email. If the role appears there too, that is a good sign. If it does not, the job is not necessarily fake, but you can contact the company through the phone number or email on its official site and ask: “I was contacted by [name] about the [role] position. Do they work for you?” This one step is the most effective defense against someone using a real company's name.

4. The office address

Look up the address on a map, with street view if available. You want to know whether it is an office, a warehouse, a shop, a private home or a virtual office address shared by many businesses. A virtual or registered-agent address is common and legal, especially for US companies registered through an agent, but if you are invited to an “in-person interview at our office” and the office is a mail-forwarding address, ask where the meeting will actually take place. If the interview is somewhere other than the company's premises, tell someone you trust and choose a public place.

5. Reviews and online footprint

Search the company name together with words like “scam”, “reviews” and “interview”. Read what employees and candidates say on employer review sites and on map listings. The FTC suggests the same approach and notes that a lack of complaints does not guarantee a company is honest. Reviews can be faked in both directions: be wary of dozens of glowing, similar-sounding reviews posted within a few days, and give more weight to detailed accounts that match each other. A company that calls itself an “industry leader” but leaves almost no trace online is also telling you something.

6. Interviews held only over chat

An interview conducted entirely in writing on WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal or another messaging app, with no phone or video call at any point, is one of the most typical signs of a fake recruiter. Chat lets the other side hide who they are, follow a script and handle many targets at once. A made-up example:

Dear candidate, your interview will be held in writing here on Telegram. Please answer each question within 30 minutes. Afterwards we will send your contract and instructions for purchasing your home-office equipment.

Always ask for a call or video interview. If they keep finding excuses, or you are “hired” after a few typed answers, read our guide to recruiters on WhatsApp or Telegram.

7. Commission-only or door-to-door work dressed up as an office job

Not every misleading offer is a scam in the strict sense. Sometimes the company exists, but the job is not what was advertised: the ad says “entry-level marketing”, “account manager” or “client relations”, and at the interview it turns out to be door-to-door or street sales, paid on commission only with no base salary. Commission-based sales is a legitimate job, but it should be stated clearly in the ad. Signs worth spotting before you go:

• vague duties wrapped in phrases like “rapid promotion”, “entrepreneurial opportunity” or “unlimited earning potential”;
• no information on contract type, hours or base pay;
• group interviews with many candidates booked for the same time slot;
• “hands-on field training” from day one, with no explanation of where or doing what.

Before the interview, ask in writing for the contract type, base pay and duties. If you are asked to pay for training, a kit or a background check to start, read asked to pay before you start a job?

The 5-minute checklist

1. Legal name and registration: can you find the company on Companies House or the right state register, and is it active?
2. Email domain: does it match the official website exactly, letter for letter?
3. Careers page: is the role listed on the official site you found yourself? If not, did you confirm through official contact details?
4. Address: does it exist, and does it fit a business of that kind?
5. Reviews: what do candidates and employees say? Any scam reports under that name?
6. Interview channel: is there at least one phone or video call, or only chat?
7. Money and documents: have you been asked for payments, bank details or ID photos before a written offer? If yes, stop.

If the offer started from an online job ad, you can also check the job posting: some warning signs, like chat-only contact or pay far above the market, are visible in the text itself.

If something does not add up

1. Do not send documents, bank details or verification codes, and do not pay anything, however much they rush you.
2. Contact the real company through the details on its official website and tell them what happened. If someone is using its name, it will want to know.
3. Save the evidence: the ad, emails with the full sender address, chats and phone numbers.
4. Report it. In the US, report to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov; the FTC also suggests contacting your state attorney general. In the UK, use Report Fraud, the service that replaced Action Fraud, at reportfraud.police.uk (England, Wales and Northern Ireland; in Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101). If you already paid, call your bank straight away.
5. Report the ad to the job site where you found it.

If the offer involved getting paid to like videos or rate products, the pattern is explained in our guide to the task scam.