Company Sent Me a Check Before I Started — Is This Normal?

Disclaimer: This post is general information, not legal or financial advice. If you have deposited a suspicious cheque, contact your bank immediately.

A cheque arrives in the post or in your inbox before your first day. It is bigger than your salary should be. HR says it covers your laptop, your monitor, and a few software licences — go ahead and buy them from this approved supplier.

This is the fake-cheque employment scam. It is not normal. It is not a real-world employer being generous. It is one of the most successful job scams of the last decade, and the FTC has been warning about it for years.

How the fake-cheque scam works

1. You accept an unsolicited remote role on WhatsApp or email.
2. The "employer" couriers or e-deposits a cheque worth several thousand dollars.
3. You deposit it. Your bank shows the funds on day one — this is provisional credit, not cleared funds.
4. HR asks you to send most of the money to a third party (the "equipment supplier") by bank transfer, Zelle, or wire.
5. You do. The cheque bounces 3–10 days later.
6. The bank reverses the credit. You now owe the bank the full amount you sent.

It works because cheques look like they have cleared days before they actually have. The scammer needs only one window — between deposit and bounce — to extract the real money.

Red flags this is a fake-cheque scam

• 🚩 You were sent money before signing or starting.
• 🚩 You are asked to forward part of the cheque to someone else (a vendor, courier, IT supplier, or charity).
• 🚩 The supplier's email is generic (Gmail, Outlook, ProtonMail).
• 🚩 You are told to act fast — "buy today or you won't be ready for orientation".
• 🚩 The job was offered via WhatsApp, Telegram, or LinkedIn DM, not a normal recruiting flow.
• 🚩 The cheque is for an oddly precise amount higher than needed ("you can keep the difference").

What to do if you have already deposited the cheque

1. Do not spend or forward any of the funds. Even if your account balance shows them.
2. Call your bank's fraud line immediately. Tell them you suspect a fake-cheque employment scam. Ask them to put a hold on the deposit and flag any outbound transfers tied to it.
3. Save all communications. Emails, WhatsApp chats, the offer letter, the courier slip. You will need them for reporting.
4. Walk through the damage-control checklist.
5. Report. The FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, the FBI's IC3, Action Fraud in the UK, or Scamwatch in Australia.

What a real employer actually does

Real employers do not pre-fund you. They buy the equipment themselves and ship it directly, or they reimburse you after you have started, signed a contract, and submitted a receipt. They never ask you to receive money on their behalf and forward it elsewhere.

Verify before you cash anything

Before you act on any payment, paste the "HR" messages into our free scam checker — it flags fake-cheque scripts, urgency tactics, and supplier-forwarding requests. For the full picture, read the job scam checker guide.

Where to Report

• 🇦🇺 Australia: Scamwatch
• 🇺🇸 USA: FTC ReportFraud
• 🇬🇧 UK: Action Fraud
• 🌐 International: Global Scam Reporting Directory

If a cheque arrived before your first day, the scam has already started. The question is only whether you stop it before the bank reverses the deposit.