A home office job, no qualifications needed, a reply within hours. That is not your lucky day. It is the opening move of a scam that can leave you with a bank account in your name that strangers use to move stolen money.
What is actually going on
Consumer advisers in Germany call this job scamming. Criminals write fake job ads, often using the name of a company that really exists, and place them on ordinary job portals or send them through WhatsApp and Telegram. Their websites look real because copying a real company’s website costs almost nothing today.
The ad promises work from home, money that sounds too good for the effort, and a start that does not depend on your qualifications. Nobody asks for certificates or references. Someone is friendly in a chat. Then, before any contract exists, comes the real request.
It is usually one of four things: a photo of your ID card, front and back, plus a selfie of you holding it; a short video call where you show your ID and your face; a request to open a bank account yourself as a test; or a payment for training, equipment or a licence before you have signed anything.
That video call is the part worth understanding. When you open a bank account online, the bank checks your face and your ID in a short video call. If you make that call because a supposed employer asked you to, you have opened a real bank account in your own name, tied to an email address and phone number that the criminals control. You never see the account again. They use it to take money from people buying in fake shops, or to pass stolen money along.
The newest version was flagged by BaFin, the German financial regulator, on 21 September 2026. There the job is to keep your own bank account available for payments: money arrives from strangers and you forward it or swap it into cryptocurrency.
Why it matters to you
The account is in your name, and that is the part that hurts. When people who paid into it report a fraud, the account they name is yours. You may get a court letter, a demand for the money, a damaged credit record, or a police investigation.
Consumer advisers are blunt about it: because you opened the account yourself, your position is awkward even though you are a victim. Photos of your ID are also enough for strangers to order a mobile phone contract or take out a loan in your name.
Money can vanish too. Police in Neubrandenburg reported a case where a man answered an ad promising good earnings for liking hotels on a travel platform. After small real payouts he paid in about 2,000 euro, money he had borrowed from his grandmother, and was then told the sum was frozen and a further 3,000 euro was needed to release it.
What you can actually do
- Check the employer, not the ad. Does the job appear on the company’s own website? If you cannot find the company at all, stop there.
- Never send a photo of your ID card, a selfie with it, your account number, your tax number or your insurance number through a chat or an email. Before a signed contract an employer needs your name, your contact details and your CV. Nothing else.
- Treat a video identity check or a request to open a bank account as a stop sign. No employer needs either of those before you have signed.
- Never pay to get a job. Training, equipment, licences and unlocking work steps are charged by criminals, not by employers.
- Do not install software a supposed employer sends you, and do not let anyone take remote control of your computer during an interview.
- Check by yourself. Call the company on the phone number from its own website, not the number in the message, and ask whether the job exists.
- If something already happened: call your bank at once using the number on your card, have the account blocked, then report it to the police and keep every message as evidence. If you sent ID copies, ask the credit agency Schufa for a free identity theft warning note.
Common misunderstandings
Myth: a fake ad would look fake
Criminals copy real company websites and use artificial intelligence to write clean, convincing text. A professional look costs them nothing, so it proves nothing.
Myth: it was on a real job portal, so somebody checked it
Large portals screen ads automatically, but they do not verify every employer. A serious platform can still carry a convincing fake ad. Check the company, not the portal.
Myth: I only sent a photo of my ID, so nothing can happen
ID photos plus a selfie are enough to prepare a bank account in your name. The missing piece is the video call, and that is exactly what the next message asks you for.
What to watch for next
More of these ads, not fewer. Consumer advisers say the effort behind them keeps falling, and BaFin has warned about this kind of job offer several times. Expect fake ads for data entry, parcel forwarding, product testing and hotel or app reviews, and expect to be moved into a chat app early. A friendly chat is not proof that a real person is behind it.
The one thing to remember
A real employer never asks for a copy of your ID, never sends you to a video identity check, and never asks you to open a bank account before you have signed a contract. If a job asks for any of that, stop, keep the messages, and tell your bank and the police.
Image credit: Middle-aged businesswoman typing on laptop at home office by Shixart1985, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0).