To check if a job posting is real, find the same job in the company's own hiring system. Go to the company's website yourself, follow its careers link, and look for the same title and job ID there. If the job is not there, do not apply through the copy. If anyone asks you to pay, stop.
Covesight reads jobs at the source every day. In the latest live check (22 October 2026), it read 82,217 job listings from 2,680 company hiring systems and a few job feeds. This guide shows how to do the same check by hand.
Why the company's own hiring system is the test
A company that hires online usually posts each job in a hiring system. That is the software that holds its job ads and the applications people send, often called an applicant tracking system (ATS). The posting there is the original. The company writes it, reads the applications that come in through it, and closes it when the job is filled.
Job sites and social media posts show copies. A copy may be accurate, or it may be out of date. A fake posting has no original at all, which is why the company's own system is the place to check.
These are the systems that the 39,074 live remote listings on Covesight's job board were read from in the latest daily check:
| Read from | Listings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse | 12,622 | 32.3% |
| Ashby | 9,929 | 25.4% |
| Lever | 2,896 | 7.4% |
| Workday | 1,550 | 4% |
| SmartRecruiters | 868 | 2.2% |
| Job feeds and careers pages | 11,209 | 28.7% |
Of those, 71.3% were read straight from one of the five hiring systems.
When a job is gone from the company's system but still on job sites
When a job is filled or cancelled, the company closes it in its hiring system. The posting disappears from its job board, and its application form closes too. From then on, nobody at the company reads new applications for that job.
A job site that copied the posting keeps showing it until that site checks the source again. If the copy has its own apply form, your details go to the site that runs the copy, and the company may never see them. In the latest daily check, 2,255 listings vanished from their source and were removed.
So if a job is still on a job site but you cannot find it on the company's own board, treat it as closed until the company tells you otherwise.
What a real hiring system link looks like
Each hiring system gives its job pages the same kind of web address. Learn the five patterns and you can tell which system holds a posting, and which part of the address is the job ID. In the examples, company stands for the company's short name in that system. Sometimes it has a number or a dash added.
- Greenhouse.
job-boards.greenhouse.io/company/jobs/4012345678. Some boards usejob-boards.eu.greenhouse.io, and links that start withboards.greenhouse.ioopen the same boards. The long number at the end is the job ID. When a company shows its Greenhouse jobs on its own website, the address contains?gh_jid=followed by that same number, as Greenhouse's help page explains. - Lever.
jobs.lever.co/company/followed by a long code of letters and numbers in five groups joined by dashes. Some boards usejobs.eu.lever.co. The long code is the job ID. - Ashby.
jobs.ashbyhq.com/company/followed by the same kind of five-group code, which is the job ID. The application form is the same address with/applicationat the end. - Workday.
company.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/followed by the name of the company's career site,/job/, a location and the job title. The number afterwddiffers between companies. The address ends with an underscore and the requisition number, such as_JR1234567, which is the job ID. Read the location part too. It can name a country and a state even for a remote job, as inUS-CA-Remote. - SmartRecruiters.
jobs.smartrecruiters.com/Company/744000123456789-job-title. The long number is the job ID. The addresscareers.smartrecruiters.com/Companyleads to the company's full list of jobs, sometimes on its own website.
A link in one of these patterns tells you which system holds the posting. It does not tell you who opened the account. That is why the steps below start from the company's own website.
How to check if a job posting is real, step by step
- Find the company's website yourself. Type the address or search for the company's name. Do not use a link from the ad or the message.
- Open the careers page. Look for Careers, Jobs or Join us in the top menu or at the bottom of the page.
- Follow it to the list of jobs. It may open one of the five systems above, or show the list on the company's own domain.
- Search the list for the title. Use the search box on the board, or your browser's find-in-page.
- Open the posting and read the location lines. The company's version has the full text on where it can hire. A copy may shorten that to one word, such as Remote.
Match the title and the job ID
Titles repeat. One company can post the same title for several countries or several teams. The job ID belongs to one posting only, so it is the safer match. If the copy shows the company's job ID or requisition number, it should match the number or code in the company's job address. If the copy links to an original, compare that link with the patterns above.
If you find the same title with a different location, the company's version is the one that counts. When it says the job only hires in one country, that is your answer, even if the copy said remote. Why remote jobs end up US only explains where that rule comes from.
Check who is writing to you
Look at the part of the email address after the @. A recruiter at a real company writes from the company's own domain, the same one as the website you found yourself. Treat it as a warning sign when the address uses a free email service such as gmail.com or outlook.com, adds a word to the company's name (companyname-careers.com), or misspells it.
Some employers publish a short scam notice on their careers site that names the domain their recruiters use. Greenhouse, the company behind one of the hiring systems above, says in its own notice that its recruiters contact candidates only from an @greenhouse.io address. It also says it never asks for personal or financial information during interviews.
The channel matters as much as the address. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tells job seekers to ignore generic and unexpected texts, WhatsApp or Telegram messages about jobs, because real employers will never contact you that way. If you are not sure about a message, write to the company through the contact details on its own website. Ask whether the person works there.
When the job is only on a job site or in a chat message
Only on a job site
Job sites are good for finding jobs. Check each one at the source before you apply. The best remote job sites for the Philippines compares the sites themselves. If you cannot find the job on the company's board, write to the company through its website and ask whether the role is open. Do not send your application through the copy until you have an answer.
Only in a chat message
A job offer you did not ask for, sent by text, WhatsApp or Telegram, matches the scam the FTC describes. The fake recruiter names a company you may know, mentions pay without saying what the job is, and asks you to reply YES. Then comes a reason for you to send money. One version is a check you deposit and then partly send back, which is a fake check scam. Another is paid online tasks that end with a request to deposit your own money, which is a task scam.
The FTC's advice on job scams is short. Honest employers will never ask you to pay to get a job. No honest employer sends you a check and then asks you to send part of the money to someone else. Before you answer anyone, search the company's name with the words scam, review or complaint. If you already paid, the FTC says to contact the company you used to send the money right away and ask to reverse the payment if possible.
The FTC also names data entry and reshipping packages among the gigs that scammers offer in unexpected texts, social media messages and emails. If data entry is the work you want, remote data entry jobs shows where that work is posted today and under which titles. The other warning signs, from high pay for vague work to listings that never change, are in how to find legitimate remote jobs.
Every listing on the board is read from a company's hiring system or a job feed and checked again every day. Listings that vanish from their source are removed at the next daily check. The methodology page lists every check.