Employers are still posting fake jobs.
It's a problem that will never end.
A long time ago, on a different domain name that was on a different platform, I made a post about the fake job postings that companies make on Indeed (and other job boards). It is now 2026 and the problem has only gotten worse.
I first became aware of this problem in 2020. I was laid off as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. I had used Indeed before, in 2016, and I didn’t have any issues with fake job postings. If there were any fake jobs, I didn’t see them.
Fast forward to March 2020. My employer at the time shut down in-person operations, so everyone who worked in-person was laid off. The day I found out that I was laid off, I immediately went on Indeed and started applying for jobs. From March 2020 to September 2021, I applied for THOUSANDS of jobs. I am not kidding. Of those thousands of jobs I applied for, only three of them were legitimate.
Finally, in September 2021, I ended up getting a job that wasn’t posted on Indeed. I had applied directly on the company’s website. They interviewed me the next day and I was hired.
But that time period from March 2020 to September 2021? Every day, I received hundreds of spam emails, text messages, and calls. I even got dozens of spam letters in the mail! These companies had taken my information and sold it to data brokers. They knew they didn’t have any jobs. They were hoping to get as many people to apply for the fake job as possible so that they could make money off our information. I had reported every single one of these fake jobs to Indeed, but they did nothing about it. They allowed the fake jobs to be posted.
It took a long time to get my data removed from these data brokers and to finally stop receiving all the spam. After that disaster in 2020-2021, I never applied for another job on Indeed. I only apply on the company’s website.
So, imagine my disgust when I found out that in 2026 Indeed is STILL allowing these fake jobs to be posted! I will repeat the same warning I posted back then: DO NOT APPLY FOR ANY JOBS ON INDEED! Only apply for jobs on the company’s website. DO NOT USE ANY JOB BOARDS! The jobs posted on Indeed and the other job boards are FAKE! Your information will be sold to data brokers if you apply for “jobs” on Indeed and job boards.
I hope that someday Indeed and job boards are shut down for good. They only hurt job seekers.