Behance is a great place for clients and freelancers to connect on projects. As you’re reviewing your job inquiries, make sure to carefully review the message and remember that job scams are an increasingly common type of fraud scheme online. Anyone can message you to inquire about work. If you’re interested, we recommend responding and using the proposal feature to keep all communication and transactions on Behance (when in an eligible country). Get started by clicking “Create Proposal” under an inquiry. By using this feature, your interaction will be more secure and you’ll have the support of the Behance team.
Read the tips below to avoid accidentally working with scammers who are intending to steal personal information or money, or who are impersonating legitimate people or companies in order to do so.
Here are some best practices to protect yourself from job scams:
- If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Fraudulent jobs or opportunities will often promise outsized rewards for little work to entice victims, such as signing bonuses and advances. Often, scammers will try to lower their target's guard with compliments, promise a big opportunity, and then pull the scam.
- Behance or Adobe will NOT contact you via Inbox Message to verify your account.
- Slow down if the person contacting you is requiring a specific kind of payment like crypto, bank transfers, gift cards, checks or the wiring of funds.
- If someone is asking you to continue your conversation off-platform, especially to another messaging app, be aware that this may be a scam.
- Be wary of job postings or messages that include misspellings and grammatical errors.
- Avoid filling out unknown forms asking for personal information.
- Verify information from the potential employer to confirm their identity. Examples include company email address, phone number, or social media handles. Check this against the information on the company’s official website or using a search engine.
- If you suspect a job post or message is a scam, report it – our team will investigate and take action according to our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.
- If you’ve been a victim of a scam, don't be quiet about it. Report it to your local law enforcement.
Example of a common job scam message:
Good Afternoon ___________,
I am George Taylor and I work as a Human Resources Recruiter at Company XYZ. I saw your profile here and I was impressed by youre experience.
Here at Company XYZ, we are always looking to grow our teams with talented people and achieve great things together.
I’d love to tell you a little more about the opening position and learn a few things about you, as well.
Are you available? If so, I’d be happy to coordinate via Google Hangouts and Telegram.
Work Hours Or Shift: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
Salary: $25 - 40 /Hr
I hope you have a great day.
Sincerely,
George Taylor
For more info on common job/hiring scams visit:
https://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/current_top_10_scam_list.php
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2025/03/what-are-signs-scam
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/10/business/online-scams-advice.html
https://www.consumerreports.org/scams-fraud/how-to-protect-yourself-from-common-scams/