Scam Protection
Fake UK Job Offers: 9 Sponsorship Scams Targeting Nigerians and How to Verify an Employer
A "UK employer" slides into your DMs with a job, a salary in pounds and a sponsorship promise — all it needs is a small processing fee. This is how to tell a real sponsor from a scam in about fifteen minutes, before any money or documents leave your hands.
Why Nigerians get targeted so hard
Fraudsters follow demand. Thousands of Nigerians genuinely do move to the UK on sponsored work visas every year, so a message about care homes, warehouses, nursing or IT roles feels believable rather than ridiculous.
They also know the emotional pressure you are under. A scammer does not need to fake a whole company — only enough of one to survive the three days it takes to collect your money.
Social platforms make the approach cheap. The same template gets fired at thousands of people through Snapchat, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok comments and Facebook groups, and a handful of replies is all the profit they need.
Scams 1 to 5: the money-first playbook
1. The upfront "processing" or "visa" fee. You are asked for ₦150,000 to ₦2 million for CoS processing, agent fees or document handling, paid to a personal bank account, crypto wallet or via a bureau de change. Real UK visa fees are paid to the Home Office through the official application service, never to a recruiter's private account.
2. The forged Certificate of Sponsorship. You receive a colourful PDF with a Home Office logo and a "CoS number". Genuine sponsorship is assigned electronically by a licensed employer and the reference is used in your own online visa application — a decorative certificate proves nothing.
3. The fake sponsor licence screenshot. The "company" sends an image of a licence approval letter. Anyone can edit a PDF; only the published register of licensed sponsors on GOV.UK settles the question.
4. The lookalike website and email domain. A real NHS trust, care group or logistics firm is cloned, with a domain like nhs-careers-uk.net or a Gmail address using the company name. Compare the domain letter by letter with the one you find yourself through a search engine.
5. The job that does not exist on the employer's own site. Sponsored vacancies are normally advertised on the company's careers page or a mainstream job board. If the only evidence is a chat message, treat it as marketing for a scam, not a job.
Scams 6 to 9: the quieter, more damaging ones
6. The document harvest. No fee is requested — just your passport bio page, BVN, NIN, bank statement, selfie and signature "for the CoS file". That package is enough for identity fraud and loan fraud in your name. Give personal data only after you have verified the employer, and never share your BVN with a recruiter.
7. The loan or salary-deduction trap. You are offered sponsorship "free", repayable from your UK wages, sometimes with a contract you sign in Nigeria. Arrangements built on debt you must work off are a known route into exploitation, and clauses like that are a reason to walk away and seek advice.
8. The closed-route con. Scammers keep selling roles on routes that have changed. Overseas recruitment of care workers was restricted in 2025, for example, so anyone still promising easy care sponsorship from Nigeria is either out of date or lying. Check the current rules for your route on GOV.UK before believing any pitch.
9. The fake adviser or "immigration lawyer". After the job scam comes a second person offering to fix your application for a fee. In the UK, paid immigration advice must come from a solicitor or an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, formerly the OISC, and both are checkable online.
The money rule that exposes most fakes
Under UK rules, a sponsor cannot pass the cost of the sponsor licence or the Certificate of Sponsorship on to you, and the Immigration Skills Charge is the employer's bill. UK employment agencies are also barred from charging work-seekers a fee for finding them work in most sectors.
What you legitimately pay is your own visa application fee, the immigration health surcharge, your TB test and travel. At the time of writing the health surcharge is about £1,035 per year per adult and the Skilled Worker fee runs from roughly £700 to £1,600 depending on length, but these amounts change — confirm today's figures on GOV.UK.
So the test is simple. Any request for money that reaches a recruiter, agent or "HR officer" rather than the official Home Office payment page is a reason to stop.
Step 1: check the sponsor licence yourself
The Home Office publishes a register of licensed sponsors for workers on GOV.UK, and it is free to search. Download or open it and look up the employer by name, not by the name the recruiter typed in the chat.
Confirm three things: the organisation genuinely appears; the entry covers the route you were offered, such as Skilled Worker; and the rating shown is an A rating. If the company is absent from the register, it cannot sponsor you, no matter what the offer letter says.
Beware near-matches. "Brightcare Homes Ltd" on the register is not the same as "Bright Care Homes UK Limited" in your inbox, and scammers rely on you not noticing the gap.
Step 2: prove the company and the person are real
Look the company up on Companies House, the UK's free register. Check the incorporation date, registered address, whether accounts have been filed and whether the directors match the people you are speaking to. A firm registered six weeks ago that claims to hire 200 nurses deserves hard questions.
Then verify the human. Find the company's switchboard number independently through its official website, call it and ask to be put through to the named recruiter. Never use the number in the email signature.
Cross-check the recruiter's profile age, connections and work history, and request a short video interview. Scammers avoid live video, avoid company email addresses and avoid being pinned to a specific department.
Step 3: read the offer letter like an auditor
A credible offer names the exact job title, the occupation code, the salary, weekly hours, the work address and a start date, and it is signed by a named person on company letterhead with a company email. Vague wording such as "£3,500 monthly plus accommodation, position available immediately" is a warning, not a win.
Check the salary against the rules. Skilled Worker salary thresholds and occupation "going rates" are set by the Home Office and were raised in 2025, so an offer paying far below the published rate for that job cannot support a visa — confirm the current figures on GOV.UK.
Look for the tells: spelling errors, mismatched logos, a UK address that turns out to be a virtual office, no mention of pension or probation, and a deadline measured in hours.
If you have already paid or shared documents
Act on the same day. Contact your bank, report the transfer as fraud and ask about a recall; the chance is slim once funds are moved or converted to crypto, but speed matters. Screenshot everything — chats, account names, phone numbers, PDFs, profile links — before the scammer deletes it.
In Nigeria, report to the police and to the EFCC, and contact NAPTIP if the offer involved trafficking, debt bondage or someone arranging your travel in exchange for future work. If the fraud has a UK element, Action Fraud is the UK's national reporting centre, and the genuine company whose name was cloned usually wants to hear about it too.
If you shared your BVN, NIN or bank details, tell your bank, change passwords, enable two-factor authentication and watch for loans or accounts opened in your name. And tell the group chat where you found the "job" — the next person may still have time to stop.
Common questions
Can a UK employer legally ask me to pay for sponsorship?No. The sponsor licence fee, the Certificate of Sponsorship fee and the Immigration Skills Charge are the employer's costs and cannot be passed to you, and UK employment agencies generally cannot charge work-seekers for finding them work. You normally pay only your own visa fee, the health surcharge, your TB test and travel, directly through official channels.
How do I know if a company can really sponsor me?Search the Home Office register of licensed sponsors for workers on GOV.UK. The employer must appear by its exact legal name, be listed for the route you were offered, and hold an A rating. If it is not on that list, it cannot sponsor a work visa.
The recruiter sent a Certificate of Sponsorship PDF. Is that proof?Not on its own. Sponsorship is assigned electronically by the employer and the reference number is entered in your own visa application on GOV.UK. A certificate-style document is easy to forge, so always verify the employer on the sponsor register and confirm the role directly with the company's published contact details.
What should I never send to an online recruiter?Your BVN, full bank details, passwords, one-time codes, or money to a personal account, crypto wallet or gift card. Hold back your passport scans and other identity documents until you have confirmed the employer exists on the sponsor register and spoken to someone through the company's official switchboard.
This article is general information for awareness only, not immigration or legal advice; visa rules, fees and sponsor lists change, so always confirm details on GOV.UK or with a regulated adviser before you act.