Short answer
A real job offer for Europe always has a named employer you can look up in an official business register, written terms that show gross pay and deductions, and a route through a work permit and the correct visa. If you are asked to pay for the job, promised a guarantee, or told to travel on a tourist visa, stop.
Why this matters
People looking for work abroad are a target because the process is unfamiliar, the stakes are high and the person offering the job is usually far away. Most fraud follows the same few patterns, so a short check catches most of it.
Step 1: Who is the employer?
Ask for the employer’s full legal name, registration number and address. A legitimate recruiter or agency will give this without hesitation. Then look the company up in the official business register of the country. Every EU country has one, and most are searchable online for free. If the company does not exist, or the details do not match, there is no job.
If the person says the employer will be “disclosed later”, ask why. There are legitimate reasons to withhold an employer’s name until you are shortlisted, but the recruiter must at least name themselves, show their own registration and explain the terms of the work.
Step 2: Are the terms in writing?
Before you agree to anything, you should be able to see, in writing:
- gross salary, per hour or per month, with the currency;
- the deductions you should expect (tax, social contributions, accommodation);
- normal working hours and how overtime is paid;
- the type and length of the contract;
- accommodation details and cost;
- who pays for travel;
- how the work permit and visa will be handled.
If any of these are “we will tell you when you arrive”, the offer is not complete. An incomplete offer is not always fraud, but you should not travel on one.
Step 3: Is anyone asking you for money?
Ethical recruitment for Europe is paid by the employer. The International Labour Organization’s fair-recruitment principles state that workers should not be charged recruitment fees. In practice, government fees (visa fee, insurance, translations, medical checks) may be your cost, and a legitimate vacancy states this openly. What is never legitimate:
- a fee for “the job”, “the contract” or “a place”;
- a payment to reserve a position;
- a payment for a guaranteed visa or permit;
- a transfer to a personal bank account, card or mobile wallet.
Step 4: Is anyone promising a guarantee?
Nobody can guarantee a job, a work permit or a visa. Employers decide whom they hire. Government authorities decide on permits and visas, and they refuse applications every day. A recruiter who guarantees the outcome is either inexperienced or dishonest.
Step 5: Which visa are you being told to use?
You may only work in a European country with the authorization that country requires, usually a work permit obtained by the employer and a national work visa in your passport. Being told to enter on a tourist or short-stay visa and “sort the papers later” is illegal and dangerous: it can end in a fine, removal and a multi-year entry ban, and it leaves you with no legal protection at work.
Step 6: Check the channel
Confirm the recruiter through contact details you find independently, for example on the company’s own website, not through the details in the message. Personal social-media accounts, unverifiable phone numbers and websites that copy the look of a real company are common tools of fraud.
Step 7: Take your time
A genuine offer does not disappear because you asked questions or slept on it. Pressure, invented deadlines and “only three places left” are tactics, not facts.
What Armenian Workers does
Every vacancy we publish is checked against the same list above before it appears on the site. If you receive a message in our name that fails any of these checks, report it on the anti-fraud page. We investigate every report.
