Lost time, not lost money, is the biggest impact of fake or suspicious job opportunities on jobseekers in Singapore, according to a new survey from Indeed.

The survey of 1,000 respondents found 40 per cent cite wasted time as the biggest personal impact of encountering a suspicious job opportunity, ahead of emotional stress (24 per cent) and lost trust (18 per cent). Only 5 per cent say they missed a real job opportunity as a result, and just 4 per cent report losing money outright.

Suspicious opportunities are common in Singapore’s job market

Nearly three in four respondents — 72 per cent — have encountered a job opportunity that felt fake or suspicious at least once, and almost half say it’s happened to them a few times or more. Job scams are already among Singapore’s most common scam types, with losses reaching S$34.9 million in the first half of 2026.

For most people, doubt doesn’t start with the job posting itself. The first message or call from a recruiter is the point where 39 per cent of respondents first start questioning whether an opportunity is genuine, compared with 27 per cent who become suspicious at the job-posting stage. Confidence at that first point of contact is mixed — only 21 per cent feel very confident they can spot a genuine opportunity when a recruiter first reaches out.

What builds trust in a hiring process

Respondents pointed to a handful of signals that help them trust an opportunity: official company emails and seeing the role listed on the company’s own website, both cited by 37 per cent, followed by being able to verify the recruiter (35 per cent), a proper hiring process (29 per cent) and a clear job description (26 per cent).

“Job scams are often discussed in terms of money lost, but our findings show the impact on the job search starts much earlier,” said Shannon Peter Pang, Sales Team Lead at Indeed for Asia.

Pang added that employers can help close that trust gap by using official communication channels, making recruiters easy to identify, and being upfront about the role and hiring process from the start.