India’s leading jobs platform, Apna.co, has introduced an innovative verification system named Apna Safety to combat job scams during the country’s festive hiring surge. This AI-powered tool aims to protect millions of job seekers by verifying recruiters through a series of trust checks against official domains, registered business records, and digital patterns, ultimately generating a credibility score.
The launch coincides with India’s peak hiring season, which typically sees a surge in recruitment activity. Early pilot results from August 2025 and September 2025 show promising outcomes. Over 146,000 recruiters were verified, leading to a significant 45% reduction in fraud exposure for job seekers. Safety-related complaints on Apna’s Play Store listing dropped by 60%, and the app achieved a 4.7 rating, the highest among job platforms in India.
AI-Powered Security Enhancements
Apna Safety offers candidates a straightforward method to verify a recruiter’s authenticity. Users can input a phone number via the Apna app or at apna.co/apna-safety. The system classifies recruiters as active, blocked, or unregistered, and allows users to report suspicious profiles. This layered verification process involves checking company legitimacy against GST, PAN, and CIN records, while recruiter details are validated using Aadhaar information.
The AI system cross-references this data with domains, legal business names, and digital activity patterns to produce an overall credibility score. Recruiters who fail these checks are either restricted or blocked, creating a safer environment for job seekers from the onset of their search.
In addition to verification, Apna Safety alerts users to common scam patterns, including requests for registration fees, security deposits, or pressure to purchase digital products. By embedding these warnings directly into the job search experience, Apna enhances real-time safety for candidates and fosters greater trust in the hiring process.
The Impact of Job Scams in India
Job-related scams have become one of the most significant employment risks in India. Fraudsters often impersonate recruiters, asking for fake registration fees or deposits and requiring candidates to open bank accounts for salary transfers. According to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Indians lost over ₹22,800 crore to cyber fraud in 2024, with job-related scams being the leading category of complaints. Estimates suggest that these scams may have cost India approximately ₹5,100 crore.
The sectors most affected include frontline roles such as e-commerce, logistics, telecalling, customer support, and warehouse operations. These areas experience heightened hiring activity during the festive season, putting freshers and first-time job seekers at greater risk.
In response to these challenges, Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO of Apna.co, emphasized the urgency of addressing recruitment scams: “Every year, lakhs of Indians fall prey to recruitment scams, and that is simply unacceptable. This is an industry-wide threat to the trust on which livelihoods are built.”
He highlighted the scale of Apna’s operations, noting that in Q3 2025, the platform facilitated over 2.7 crore job applications. Parikh reaffirmed Apna’s commitment to ensuring that every Indian can pursue job opportunities with confidence, dignity, and safety.
The launch of Apna Safety marks a significant step toward transforming the hiring landscape in India. By leveraging AI technology for enhanced verification and accountability, Apna.co is setting a new standard in the fight against job scams, aiming to create a more secure job market for all.
