text: recruiter or a phony? is it strange that a recruiter calls me up saying he knows of an open position in a company and yet, when i check out the careers section on the company's website, not a single open position is listed?   secondly, he calls my cell phone, but his number doesn't pop up on the lcd; it says "private number". does that sound normal?   and third, he being a third party recruiter, has been retained by the company to look for potential candidates like me, that's what he told me. but yet, his email address is a mere aol domain. shouldn't his email address reflect the domain name of the company?  are all these red flags of a fake or do i just not know how recruiters work and this guy may be for real? if he's a fake, is there a way to report him? thanks. these days, there are lots of third party recruiters who work independently on behalf of companies. there are also lots of scam artists.  before you meet him or even send him your resume, ask him to give you a letter from the company stating that he is working on their behalf.  by the way, sometimes companies hire third party recruiters so they don't have to list the opening on their website. they may not want the world to know about the search, or even their own employees.   a good third party recruiter will have their own company email address and a good phone number to their business, but many are out their on their own. some list their phone as private so that when they call into businesses to poach, their calls can't be traced.