If you have been online in the last few weeks, you probably have already seen, or at least heard about Netflix’s “Inventing Anna” or “Tinder Swindler.” It is no surprise that these series have had such an emotive response from the audience. After all, criminals used the Covid-19 pandemic to target victims online, through impersonation scams, romance fraud and investment scams.

But the recent investigation by the BBC uncovered a new type of fraud, deemed jobfishing – when they came across a fake design agency Madbird. All the employees were instructed to work from home and communicate only via Zoom and email.

A few months later, two of the employees uncovered that the address was fake, almost all the work in Madbird’s portfolio was stolen from other agencies and some of the senior colleagues didn’t exist. The employees agreed to work on a commission-only basis for six months, so as no deals were finalized, no one ended up getting paid.

At VMA GROUP we spend a lot of time researching companies and performing due diligence for our clients. Based on the experience of our recruitment consultants, here are the top tips to verify a company before you start your new communications and marketing role:

1. Ensure that the company is registered

In the UK, you can use a Companies House – a national registrar of companies, an executive agency, and a trading fund of the UK Government. All incorporated companies must be registered with the body and file specific details, such as registered address (note that this may be different to the office address), details of the directors as well as annual financial statements and returns. All of these records are public.

Outside of the UK, you can use OpenCorporates and while they do not give quite as much information, you can ensure that the company is real and cross-reference the information.

2. Put LinkedIn into action

LinkedIn is probably already your go-to resource when it comes to searching for jobs, companies, and potential employers. While some smaller companies may not be very active on LinkedIn, you may want to check the C-suite and the directors’ profiles, looking for activity and connections.

3. Use Glassdoor to get more insight into the company’s culture

Glassdoor is another great resource to find out more information about established companies, with an added benefit of employees’ reviews and average salary banding. A high volume of negative feedback from employees should raise red flags.

Google Business information is also important – the