The 30-second checklist
If a listing trips even one of these, walk away. There are too many real jobs to risk a scam.
- 1Is the pay range stated? If it just says "great pay", that's a red flag.
- 2Does the apply link go directly to the employer's careers domain (or a known ATS)? If it's a Google Form, bit.ly, or random URL, walk away.
- 3Is the company name a real business with a website older than a year?
- 4Does the listing mention any payment from you — for training, equipment, kits, or background checks? Hard no.
- 5Are the interviews over phone or video, or only over text/chat apps? Real hires happen on real channels.
- 6Are the income claims realistic for the role? "$5,000/week from home, no experience" is always a scam.
- 7Has the email contacting you come from a domain that matches the employer? "concentrix.recruiter@gmail.com" is fake; "@concentrix.com" is real.
Seven scam patterns we see every week
Memorize these. They cover ~95% of WFH scams in the wild.
Pattern 1
Asks for any payment from you
Real employers never charge applicants. Not for "training kits", not for "background checks you can't see results of", not for software. Period.
Pattern 2
"Earn $1,000+ per week from home, no experience"
Real cushy jobs pay $14–28/hour. Anything higher with no experience is either commission-only sales (not cushy) or fake.
Pattern 3
Interviews entirely over text or chat app
Legitimate hires happen on phone or video. If a "hiring manager" only DMs on Telegram, WhatsApp, or Google Hangouts, walk away.
Pattern 4
Sends you a check before you start
Classic fake-check scam: they wire you money, ask you to buy something with it, the original check bounces, you owe the bank.
Pattern 5
No company website, or a website with a recent registration date
Real employers have real web presence. Run the domain through whois — if it was registered last week, run.
Pattern 6
Job description full of "be your own boss" / "downline" / "team builder"
These are MLM keywords. MLM isn't illegal but it isn't a real job — earnings are commission-only and most participants lose money.
Pattern 7
Apply link goes to bit.ly, tinyurl, or a redirect chain
Real ATS links go directly to the company's career site (greenhouse.io, lever.co, workday.com, or company-owned URLs).
What a real cushy job actually looks like
- Pay range is stated clearly: "$17–$19/hour" or "$22 starting".
- The apply link goes to the employer's ATS or career site (e.g. jobs.concentrix.com, careers.unitedhealthgroup.com, greenhouse.io URLs, lever.co URLs).
- You can find the company on Glassdoor, the Better Business Bureau, and LinkedIn — and the company has been around longer than 12 months.
- Interviews happen on the phone, on Zoom, or on the company's own video platform — not on Telegram or WhatsApp.
- Equipment is provided to you, not bought by you. (Some 1099 contractor roles ask you to use your own laptop — that's OK as long as no payment to them is involved.)
- Training is paid. You're on the clock from day one of training, not "earning" it back later.
- The job description describes specific work — not "be your own boss" or "build a team".
Risk by category
Some cushy categories have a much higher scam rate than others.
| Category | Estimated scam rate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Data entry | ~60% | Easiest scam to fake — anyone can claim "type things and earn $X". |
| Online surveys | ~50% | Aggregator sites push fake "earn $300/day" funnels. |
| Customer service | ~20% | Lower rate, but fake-recruiter scams targeting Concentrix/TTEC names happen weekly. |
| Virtual assistant | ~10% | Established VA agencies use real ATS systems. |
| Healthcare admin | < 5% | Heavily regulated — fakes are rare and short-lived. |
How we filter scams off this site
Every listing on CushyJobs goes through a four-layer verification. We reject anything that fails any layer.
1. Source filter
We only ingest from named employer ATS systems (greenhouse.io, lever.co, workday.com, employer-owned career domains) and 10 trusted aggregators. No Craigslist, no random aggregators.
2. AI red-flag detection
Every listing is read by Claude (Anthropic) against an explicit rubric: MLM keywords, unrealistic earnings, pay-to-apply patterns, vague descriptions, fake-recruiter language.
3. Apply-URL re-fetch
Every 12 hours, we re-fetch every apply link. If it 404s or redirects somewhere weird, we mark the listing expired and remove it.
4. Community report flag
Every listing has a "Report this job" button. If 2+ users report a listing, it goes into manual review. 5+ reports auto-removes.
If you got scammed
It happens. Here's the order of operations:
- If you sent money: contact your bank/card immediately and request a chargeback. Do this within 24 hours if possible.
- If you sent personal info (SSN, ID): place a free fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus (they tell the others).
- Report to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
- Report to the state AG where the scammer claimed to operate.
- Save everything — emails, screenshots, payment receipts. Future you will thank you.