The one rule that prevents most losses
Never send money to someone you have not met, for a job that has not happened. Nearly every loss reported on noticeboards like this one comes down to a payment made in advance — a deposit, a "materials fee", a background-check charge, a holding fee for equipment. Legitimate local work does not require you to pay before anyone turns up.
Before you agree to anything
- Talk on the phone. Five minutes on a call tells you more than fifty messages. People running scams tend to avoid voice contact and insist on text.
- Keep it on channels you can look back at. If a conversation moves to an app that deletes messages, you lose your record of what was agreed. That is usually the point.
- Search the name and number. A phone number pasted into a search engine frequently turns up the same "job" posted in a dozen cities.
- Ask specific questions about the work. Someone who has actually done the job answers easily. Someone who copy-pasted a listing gets vague fast.
- Write down the terms. Price, date, time, address, what's included, who supplies materials. A message you can both scroll back to is enough.
Meeting in person
- Tell someone where you're going — the address, who you're meeting, and when you expect to be finished. Share your live location if your phone supports it.
- Meet somewhere public first when the work itself doesn't require a home visit. A coffee shop, a parking lot, a building lobby.
- Bring someone with you for a first visit if you can, particularly for evening jobs or isolated addresses.
- Keep the door open and your phone on you if you're going into a home. Trust your gut — leave if something feels off. You do not owe anyone an explanation.
- Don't work while impaired and don't accept a job that requires it.
If you're the one hiring
- Don't leave a stranger unsupervised around valuables, documents, keys, or medication.
- Ask about licensing and insurance for anything involving gas, electrical, roofing, or structural work — and ask to see it. In Ontario, that kind of work is regulated for a reason, and an uninsured job can void your home insurance.
- Be wary of an unusually low quote for skilled work. It often means the job gets abandoned halfway, or done in a way you'll pay to have redone.
- Pay when the work is finished and you've looked at it, not before.
If you're the one working
- Confirm the money before you start: the amount, and when it lands. "We'll sort it out after" is how people end up unpaid.
- Don't hand over ID documents, banking details, or a photo of your driver's licence to get a small local job. There is no legitimate reason to ask.
- Turn down work that needs equipment or training you don't have. Nobody is served by an injury.
- Look at the site before you commit to a fixed price. A "small clear-out" can turn into two days of work.
- Watch for scope creep on the day, and say something early: "That's beyond what we agreed — I can do it for X extra, or we can stick to the original job."
Scams we see on job noticeboards
The overpayment cheque
You're "hired", then sent a cheque or e-transfer for more than the agreed amount and asked to return the difference — often for "equipment" or a "shipping agent". The original payment is fake or gets reversed days later; the money you sent back is gone, and your bank holds you responsible. Never refund an overpayment. Never forward money on someone's behalf.
The advance fee
Before you can start, you must pay for a background check, a training module, a uniform, a certification, or a "verification fee". Real employers absorb these costs. You should never pay to be given work.
The fake deposit
A "poster" asks the worker for a deposit to hold the booking, or a "worker" asks the poster to prepay for materials they'll buy on the way. Either way the person disappears. Buy your own materials, or go together.
The verification-code theft
Someone asks you to prove you're real by reading back a code they've just texted you. That code is a login or account-verification code, and handing it over gives them access — often to create an account in your name. Never read out a code you didn't request.
The too-good remote job
A local noticeboard post turns into an offer of well-paid work-from-home data entry or package reshipping, hired on the spot without an interview. This is usually money-muling or parcel fraud, and it carries real legal exposure for you. Nobody hires for a good remote job in three text messages.
The off-site link
You're pushed to a page that looks like a payment portal, an ID check, or a login for something you use. It's a credential-harvesting page. Find Me Job has no login and no payment page. Any such link is fake.
Signals worth walking away from
- Any request for money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or a wire transfer — at any stage.
- Pressure to decide immediately, or a "deposit needed in the next hour".
- Refusal to talk on the phone or meet before money changes hands.
- A request for your SIN, banking credentials, passwords, or a scan of your ID.
- A story that keeps changing — the address, the timing, who's actually paying.
- Contact details that don't match the name being used, or a listing copied word-for-word from elsewhere.
- An offer that pays far above the going rate for the work described.
Report a listing or a person
If a listing looks fraudulent, is spam, harasses someone, or offers something illegal, send it to us through the contact form. Include the job title, the category, and roughly when you saw it, so we can find it. We remove posts that break our terms of service, and reporting one takes nothing away from you.
If you've already lost money
- Contact your bank or payment provider straight away and ask about a reversal — speed matters enormously here.
- Stop all contact, but don't delete anything. Keep the messages, numbers, and any receipts.
- Report it to your national fraud reporting service and to your local police non-emergency line.
- Change the password on any account whose code or credentials you shared, and turn on two-factor authentication.
- Tell us, so we can remove the listing and stop it happening to the next person.