How to spot a fake remote nurse job

What does a fake remote nurse job look like?

The FTC’s page on job scams is about job scams in general. We found nothing on it that is specific to nurses. Its signs apply to nursing offers all the same.

• It asks you to pay. The FTC’s advice is “Don’t pay for the promise of a job.”
• It sends you a check. The FTC says: “Never bank on a ‘cleared’ check.”
• A placement firm wants a fee up front. The FTC says to walk away.
• It promises big money for little work. The FTC calls that almost certainly a scam.
• It asks you to receive and forward packages. The FTC says: “Reshipping goods is never a real job.”

How to check that a job is real

The simplest check is to find the job on the employer’s own career site. If a job is real, the employer should be able to point you to it on its own career site. Type the employer’s address into your browser yourself. Don’t use the link in a message you didn’t ask for.

• Search the employer’s own career page for the exact job title.
• Compare the apply link’s web address with the employer’s site address.
• If a recruiter reached out, ask for the posting link and find the job yourself.
• Hold off on sharing your Social Security number or bank details until you have a real offer from an employer you checked.

Pay is a second check. Pay far above the other postings for the same role is worth a second look. 606 of our 1,022 listings post their pay, and our salary pages show the posted ranges by role.

If a recruiter contacts you first

Recruiters do contact nurses, and many are real. The check is the same. Ask for the employer’s name and the posting, find the job on the employer’s own career site, and only then answer.

A scammer can fake a message. It’s harder to fake the employer’s own career site, so that’s where to look.

Red flags in how you’re contacted

These are our own rules of thumb, not the FTC’s list. They’re cheap to check.

• The message doesn’t name the employer or the posting. Ask for both before you reply.
• The web address looks close to the employer’s but not the same. Look for a swapped or extra letter.
• You’re told to answer today or lose the job. A real offer can wait a day for a question.
• The only way to reach the “employer” is a chat app or a personal email address.

After you apply

Keep a note of where and when you applied. If a message later claims to be from that employer, check it against the career site you applied on, not against the message itself.

Why we link only to employers’ own postings

We read employers’ own career sites, on Workday, Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby, and list the remote, hybrid and non-bedside nursing jobs. At our last check on November 9, 2026, that was 1,022 jobs from 61 employers. Every listing links to the employer’s own posting, and you apply there. Nothing is reposted from Indeed or LinkedIn.

A listing can close before our list catches up. If a posting is gone when you click, the employer closed it.

Is a paid job list a scam?

A paid list isn’t the same as paying for a job. A scam takes money for the promise of work. A list charges for a service, which is searching many career sites for you. We charge for plans. We don’t charge to get you hired, and we can’t promise interviews or offers.

You don’t have to pay anyone. The same jobs are on the employers’ own sites for free. If you want to test any paid list, including ours, use the checklist in is a paid nurse job list worth it? It starts with the answer: often not.

What to do if you already paid

The FTC says to contact the company you used to send the money right away and report the fraud. Ask the company to reverse the transaction if possible. You can report job scams to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and to your state attorney general.

A short checklist

• No fee to apply, interview, train or “get started.”
• No check that asks you to send money back.
• The job is on the employer’s own career site.
• The apply link goes to the employer’s site address.
• The pay looks like the pay on similar postings.
• You can say who the employer is, in your own words, before you hand over personal details.

None of these checks is perfect. A scam can look real, and a real job can have a clumsy posting. When in doubt, find the employer’s main phone number on its own website and ask whether the job exists.

If a job passes those, you can apply. Start with the current list of remote and non-bedside nurse jobs. Job titles are free to read.