Your safety is our top priority. While we work hard to keep Handshake secure, scammers may still attempt to contact students or employers. Below are tips to help you identify common scams and steps to report them to our Trust & Safety team.
How to Recognize Common Types of Scams
The goal of most scams is to extract money, sensitive information, or credentials from people. The methods used to do this vary but here are some of the most common types of scams.
Fake Job Leads
Typical format: A scammer may contact you claiming their company is hiring and ask you to email them if interested. These messages may even use the name of a real company. They may set up a fake interview or phone call, followed by a request to complete a fraudulent job application or share personal information. Some scammers may also contact you outside of Handshake, claiming they found your profile even though you didn’t apply to their company.
How to identify:
- Attempts or requests to move the conversation off Handshake – asking you to share your resume or other personal information via email, URL link, WhatsApp, or phone (text or call).
- Too good to be true offers – promises of jobs or interviews offering unusually high pay for little work, or attempts to bypass a formal job application process.
- Spelling errors, grammatical errors, or the use of informal language - reputable businesses create messages that have been edited for spelling and grammatical errors and generally do not include emojis.
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Requests for sensitive information - legitimate employers will never ask for your Social Security Number, bank account details, credit card numbers, or password via messages, email, URL links, WhatApp or phone.
Impersonations
Typical format: Scammers may impersonate Handshake, a school, or an employer. These messages often claim that you must take urgent action on your account and provide a link to click. The link will then attempt to collect personal or financial information.
How to identify:
- Suspicious links – links that don’t match Handshake’s official domain, look unusual, or are shortened (e.g., “low-priority.com” instead of a valid Handshake URL). Some may ask you to copy and paste the link into your browser.
- Spelling errors, grammatical errors, or the use of informal language - when asking you to take an account action, reputable schools and businesses create messages that have been edited for spelling and grammatical errors and generally do not include emojis.
- Handshake student accounts - Handshake has a limited number of official accounts, all registered as employer accounts. Any other message, account, or post claiming to be from “Handshake Support” or “the Handshake Team” should be considered fraudulent and reported. Handshake does not use in-app messages or feed posts to share important account information—we will always contact you by email from an official joinhandshake.com address. Handshake does not send text messages, voice notes, Whatsapp message or any other communications to your personal phone number.
- Urgent or fear-based language – messages pressuring you to act immediately (“Your account will be suspended if you don’t click now”).
- Requests for sensitive information – legitimate employers, career services, and Handshake staff will never ask for your Social Security Number, bank account details, credit card numbers, or passwords via messages, email, URL links, WhatsApp, or phone.
What to Do If You Suspect a Scam
- Do not click links or share personal information.
- Report it to our Trust & Safety team by using the “Report” button directly within your message inbox. To learn more about this process, refer to Safety: Report a Message.
If something feels off—pause before clicking, sharing, or replying. It’s always better to double-check than to risk exposing your personal information.
How We Protect You
- We actively monitor and remove scam accounts.
- Our detection systems flag suspicious activity to help protect students and employers.
- Reported scams are investigated by our Trust & Safety team, and action is taken quickly.
- We analyze scam content and behavior patterns to continuously improve our detection systems.