Last verified by our editorial team: April 2026
Students are a major target for job scams. Limited employment history, financial pressure, and unfamiliarity with hiring norms make students especially vulnerable. The FTC reports that 18-24 year-olds are 34% more likely to be victims of online employment fraud than older adults. This guide covers the five major student-targeted job scams, why they work, and the verification habits every student should adopt.
Students are commonly targeted with fake campus jobs (sent via .edu email lookalikes), money-mule schemes ('keep 10% to receive payments'), paid-survey scams, and crypto-trading 'internships'. All require independent verification through the school career services office or the company's website.
Email arrives at your .edu address from 'Professor X' or 'Campus Department of Y' offering paid administrative work. The role asks you to receive a cheque, cash it, and forward most of it to a 'vendor'. Classic overpayment fraud, dressed up to look like campus employment. Real campus jobs go through your school's official student employment portal.
Offered $200-500 per week to 'help process payments' through your bank account. You receive money from strangers and forward it, keeping a commission. This is money laundering. You can face criminal charges and have your bank account frozen, even if you did not know the money was stolen.
Promises $50-100 per survey, requires registration fee or 'membership purchase' to access surveys. The fee is non-refundable and the surveys never appear. Real survey sites (Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, Inbox Dollars) are free to join and pay $1-3 per hour, not per survey.
Promised an unpaid 'internship' at a crypto fund where you 'learn by trading with the firm's capital'. You are then asked to deposit personal crypto for 'practice', which is stolen. Real crypto firms run paid internships through formal application processes with HR.
Offered as a paid tutor for a high-paying client. The 'parent' sends a cheque for more than agreed and asks you to forward the difference for 'student materials' to a third party. Same overpayment cheque scam, dressed up as tutoring. Real tutoring platforms (Chegg Tutors, Wyzant) handle all payment without parent-tutor cheques.
Students often need money quickly, have limited job experience to compare offers against, and are unfamiliar with hiring norms. Scammers exploit these factors with offers tailored to look like legitimate campus opportunities.
Yes, but earnings are low ($1-3/hour). Legitimate sites are free to join (Swagbucks, Survey Junkie). Sites charging a 'membership' or 'access' fee are scams.
Yes. Money muling can result in criminal charges, frozen bank accounts, and a record that follows you for years. If a job involves receiving money and forwarding it, refuse and report regardless of how the work is framed.
Use your school's official student employment portal (Handshake, Symplicity, or your school's internal system). All listings are vetted by the career services office.
Yes, professors hire research assistants, but the hiring goes through the school's payroll system with HR forms, an offer letter, and direct deposit. Cash, cheques, or crypto from a 'professor' for student work is a scam.
Yes. Students are offered international internships requiring 'visa fees' or 'placement deposits'. Real study-abroad programs go through the school's international office. Always verify with that office before paying anything.
Yes for the application itself, but be alert to scammers using lookalike .edu domains (e.g., harvardu.edu instead of harvard.edu). Always verify the domain matches the school exactly.
FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, your school's career services office (so they can warn other students), and the platform where the scam was sent. Reports help authorities build cases and protect future students.