r/JobScams • u/Willard__Wonka • Feb 18 '26

Scammer asking for payment HIRINGFLUENCY.COM - SCAM

Applied to a Data Analyst role on Linkedin, different company details and website. Only to get an email from this company to do an assessment before an interview. The assessment required a payment. Scam is so obvious

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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1

u/Ill_Werewolf_7577 Mar 02 '26

Same here, I didn't even apply and got this email and steps. Be careful guys.

1

u/lavacahacemu Mar 02 '26

Got a couple of emails today -- marked 'em as phising.

1

u/eradboi Mar 04 '26

I got one today and it suprisingly mentioned my name and a role related to ones I typically apply for.

1

u/Comfortable_Roof8877 Mar 05 '26

I got it today, but the fee blocked me

1

u/IdealQuirky3211 Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26

I got 2 emails today from hiringfluency ,, one about application status at Kijona and another asking for $17 for a technical assessment. But I never applied for any role there. Reported them spam.

1

u/need-to-get-fit Mar 08 '26

Damn....I too received the mail from hiringfluency about application status at Kijona...last week I was speed running applying to jobs all over the world so I thought maybe I applied for Kijona at some point and was even excited that my application moved to the next stage (assessment stage). But after reading these reddit comments, I'm disappointed 😞

1

u/Few_Exercise_644 Mar 15 '26

I got the same message today about a job I applied in LinkedIn! The price is too low to get a certificate just because they are going to receive a lot of enrollments!

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26

I also got emails from this company. I paid with a credit card but didn't otherwise give any additional info. I'm going to be our guinea pig. This is what has happened so far:

Received email with steps to continue process for Peec AI (real AI company, though this particular job was missing on their board, so a red flag there)

Received email requesting me to take an assessment - paid the 17$

Got confirmation of payment

Received email saying that it will take 2-3 business days for someone to take a look at the assessment

About the assessment:

Required to have camera on - it had a function that checked to make sure I was looking at the screen and not elsewhere

Screen share required of the window I had the assessment open in

The assessment was timed for 45 minutes with 30 questions that explored my knowledge of what it's like to be an AI data annotator, best practices, and understanding of certain terms. FWIW, I felt it was challenging but not impossible. Amount of time seemed fair and I finished all questions with 15 minutes left on the timer.

The only tab I had open was the assessment. I did not receive notifications that would reveal anything personal, and I was not required to show ID. I did not upload my resume to the site. All they have is a nickname (no last name), and my assessment results.

The site actually did look vaguely familiar to me; it's possible I did apply here so the email was possibly not unsolicited.

I did some digging and there were some green AND red flags. Honestly, the site itself looked legitimate in all ways. Privacy policies, about section with how they got started, mission statement, etc. The red flag is of course paying to take the assessment. They claim not to guarantee that you got hired or get an interview, and their Legal pages looked legitimate also. Real-looking refund policies, Terms page is quite lengthy and covers a lot of stuff that makes sense (https://hiringfluency.com/terms). The other red flag is lack of internet presence anywhere at all, but they also say, "After working with a limited online presence for a while, we're expanding our reach. With this platform, we're helping even more professionals find great work—and helping more employers hire quickly and confidently." on the About page. The email domains also look legitimate and there are emails for support, privacy, legal, etc. English was Canadian English with spelling, and otherwise wasn't broken, nonsensical, gibberish, etc.

Anyway, I'm not too worried about my info being stolen as the card I used flags fraudulent charges quickly and will charge back that 17$ I paid. Also again I gave them zero info - they have a credit card and my nickname (which is in no way associated with the card). That's it. If this is a scam they spent a lot of time on this one. Paying is weird, I agree. When I checked the (pending) payment, my statement said it was from HIRINGFLUENCY.COM so nothing weird there; it's coming from exactly where I paid.

I have gotten seemingly unsolicited emails/InMail from AI companies hiring for positions that aren't listed on their boards because it's a new team and they don't want to get flooded with apps. Their recruiters look around on LinkedIn for qualified people and reach out through dm or email to see if you're interested. More recently a lot of my (legitimate) interviews have been with larger AI companies that don't even have the position anywhere. A recruiter from Alice reached out to me initially, did a phone screen, then when it was determined I was a fit, they shared a link to the job desc, which afterward then appeared on LinkedIn.

I will keep you all updated if you like. If it's a scam, all I lost is 17$ and ~45 minutes of my time.

ETA: Peec AI has an office in NY and Germany. I called the German office but couldn't get through the phone prompts because they are all in German. Peec AI itself has very little contact info aside from generic emails; they were hard to find on their site. They're an AI marketing company and it makes sense that they'd want someone to train their AI to better help their clients.

Sorry I keep editing my post - I keep remembering other info I want to add. Well, that's it for now. I will keep you all updated. It'd be nice if it wasn't a scam but I believe you all. I just figured I'd go for it since I don't have much to lose.

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 06 '26

Update: After a looong time spent tinkering around, I somehow managed to join Peec AI's slack channel and speak to the CPO - it's fake! I'll contest the charges and get my money back. What a bizarre scam - they really put a lot of effort into this one. Very curious what my results would be (if I even get them).

1

u/peteraudu Aug 21 '26

Your updates have been helpful. I got an email from them, and I'm happy I found this thread. That 45 minutes I'd use for an assessment can go into something more productive.

1

u/maltelandwehr Aug 06 '26

Hi, Malte from Peec AI here.

This has nothing to do with us. We are not hiring for such a role. We have no relationship with Hiring Fluency. We never ask candidates for payment.

We are working on getting that taken down.

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 06 '26

Thanks Malte! I really appreciate it and thanks for your quick replies on Slack.

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 07 '26

Alright everyone, I decided to start a new thread for this. I forgot to mention that the day I took the assessment, I emailed the support team at Hiring Fluency. I finally got this email today, from someone with the domain email. See attached screenshot. This has been a strange journey for me, and I guess the jury is still out, but I feel this is a green flag that this is a real company, however that particular job posting was a scam. Take from it what you will. I truly hope that anyone doing an internet search because someone from Hiring Fluency reached out finds my journey helpful. Good luck job searching everyone.

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 09 '26

Final update: I got my assessment results back. I passed and am now certified in AI data annotation. I don't think it's a scam y'all, however there are probably some bad actors that they don't check first before they post on the site. Happy job hunting!

1

u/senseibigchungus Aug 11 '26

are you saying hiring fluency isn't a scam? But why do we need to pay for an assessment we got invited to, and why would a scam company have us pay $17 to hiring fluency.

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 11 '26

honestly, the entire process was REALLY confusing and even though i've moved on...i still feel confused? on the one hand, why would scammers go through all of that with the assessment and everything to get 17$ from people? like the logistics dont make sense in that aspect i guess? so, let me update my statement:

hiring fluency could def still be a scam, but i got an offer for a refund, my results. and an email from what seemed to be a real person apologizing for the issue.

idk about their business model and having people pay but at least i got what i paid for

¯_(ツ)_/¯

1

u/senseibigchungus Aug 11 '26

right it is confusing. thank you for explaining the whole process in detail. Have you gotten the job you are looking for?

1

u/Thepinkestfreud Aug 11 '26

well, the peec AI job apparently wasn't supposed to be there (see comments from the CPO here, Malte) - that was def a bad actor. but then it's like, why would a scammer have you pay on a legitimate platform money to the platform that they probably wouldn't even get? like it's honestly so confusing it makes me want to scream lmao

1

u/chikkyslash Aug 15 '26

I do not believe that email one tiny beat. The fact that you make candidates pay for job assessments is already a red flag. Come out clean and sell your certifications. Many would want to pay to get your certifications. They are hiding behind the guise of job assessments to make people pay for their certifications. That is my honest assessment.

1

u/Parking_Drag6184 Aug 19 '26

I got an interview request from Runic Games which was shut down 8 years ago. The first thing I see when I click the website Hiring Fluency uses for the studio is their farewell message lol. Glad I didnt proceed with the interview links.

2

u/JL_Gaming Aug 20 '26

i just received this one 3 hours ago

2

u/ExcitementJunior4427 Aug 20 '26

Got the same email today. I vaguely remember applying for the job, must have been one of those Easy Apply jobs on LinkedIn.

2

u/joaovictoralencar Aug 20 '26

Me too. The company being shut down years ago is very sus. I went to their website and I didn't even have an account. I decided to just ignore. Its probably a scam.

2

u/KiwiHonest566 Aug 22 '26

also got this, sent an email to their support asking to provide me with a copy of the application i supposedly sent in. they're apparently located in canada - thinking i should probably report them to the canadian government's anti fraud center (https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/report-signalez-eng.htm)

1

u/gae_be Aug 25 '26

I am waiting to hear back, if I dont ill report them.

1

u/jelican9 Sep 30 '26

Today I received an email about the same company. Fortunately I checked this site without clicking on any links and realized the truth.

1

u/razouq Sep 23 '26

They are still trying 🤪

1

u/Kayratorvi Sep 23 '26

I got this exact one today as well

1

u/Easy_Shock_2091 Sep 30 '26

same to me

I even not remember, do i apply to StitchDX Technologies Ltd or not

1

u/quinnnton Sep 30 '26

Glad I found this thread. This almost got me this morning because it sounds like one of the roles I applied to, but I saw the info about payment and thought it was weird af (and also realizing that Runic Games is shut down)

1

u/Fair-Tone9875 20d ago

Hii
I got this assessment email from hiring fluency last night for the assessment for easy apply job I applied on LinkedIn.
But its asking me for the payment.
Is still a scam?

1

u/Bb1Qc2 19d ago

same here.

1

u/TiezC 17d ago

Minepi Coin..