The quick answer
Enter the website or domain into OfferSentry’s Domain Age Checker. Review the reported registration date, approximate age, registrar, expiration information, nameservers, and MX records. Treat a recently registered domain as a reason to investigate further—not as automatic proof that the website or job is fraudulent.
Why website age matters when checking a job offer
Fake recruiters sometimes impersonate real employers while directing job seekers to websites, forms, or email domains that the real company does not control. A site may copy a legitimate company’s name, colors, logo, job descriptions, and employee information.
Public domain-registration information may show that the website was registered only recently. That timing can be important when the website claims to belong to a company that has supposedly operated for many years.
The Federal Trade Commission warns that fake recruiters may impersonate recognizable companies and use professional-looking materials before requesting money or sensitive information. The FTC recommends contacting the company through a telephone number or website you independently know to be legitimate—not contact information provided by the recruiter.
A new domain is not automatically malicious, and an old domain is not automatically safe. Legitimate companies launch new websites, while criminals can compromise established websites or misuse legitimate services.
How to check a website’s age
Identify the exact domain
Look at the domain in the recruiter’s email address and every website link they provide. The important portion is the registered domain, such as example.com, not the company name displayed in the message.
Do not enter passwords, Social Security numbers, banking information, or other sensitive data into a lookup tool. A domain name is enough.
Run a public registration lookup
Use the OfferSentry Domain Age Checker or ICANN Lookup . ICANN’s lookup service uses the Registration Data Access Protocol, commonly called RDAP, to retrieve available registration data.
Review the registration date
Compare the reported registration date with what the website claims. A domain registered a few days or weeks ago deserves additional scrutiny when it claims to represent a long-established employer.
Registration information is not always complete. Some registries may not return every field, and privacy rules or registration policies may limit the publicly visible information.
Compare all three domains
Compare the recruiter’s email domain, the claimed company’s official website, and the job-posting URL. They should make sense together. Watch for added words, extra hyphens, misspellings, substituted characters, or unrelated domains.
Verify through the real company
Find the company’s website independently, navigate to its careers page, and look for the position. If necessary, contact the company using contact information you found yourself. Do not rely on a telephone number or link supplied by the recruiter.
How to interpret the lookup results
Registration date
Shows when the current domain registration was reportedly created. A very recent date may justify additional investigation.
Registrar
Identifies the company through which the domain was registered. A familiar registrar does not verify the website’s owner.
Expiration date
Shows when the current registration period is expected to end, when that information is publicly available.
Nameservers
Identify the DNS infrastructure used by the domain. Nameservers alone do not prove whether the site or recruiter is legitimate.
MX mail records
Show whether the domain is configured to receive email. MX records are normal technical infrastructure, not proof of legitimacy.
Missing information
A missing field does not necessarily indicate fraud. Public RDAP information varies across registries, registrars, and domain types.
Website-age warning signs that deserve more investigation
- The domain was registered recently but claims to represent a company with a long operating history.
- The recruiter’s email uses a different domain from the company’s independently located official website.
- The domain adds words such as “careers,” “recruiting,” “remote,” “staffing,” or “jobs” to a well-known company name.
- The website address contains a misspelling, substituted letter, unexpected hyphen, or unfamiliar ending.
- The job cannot be found on the real company’s careers page.
- The recruiter pressures you to provide banking, identity, or tax information before a normal interview and hiring process.
- You are asked to pay for equipment, training, background checks, certifications, account upgrades, or access to earnings.
- You receive a check and are told to send part of the money elsewhere.
Why an older domain is not proof of safety
An established registration date only shows that the domain has existed for a period of time. It does not prove that the person contacting you works for the organization, controls the domain, or has permission to recruit on the company’s behalf.
Criminals may compromise legitimate email accounts, abuse real job platforms, redirect users through unrelated services, or impersonate an organization without controlling its official website.
The FBI has warned that scammers can exploit recruitment websites and use legitimate company information to make fraudulent postings appear credible. That is why every promising technical signal must still be followed by independent confirmation.
Locate the employer’s official website yourself and confirm the job and recruiter through its careers page or a trusted contact method. Do not use the recruiter’s link as your only source.
Job-offer website verification checklist
- I identified the exact registered domain in every link.
- I checked the domain’s available registration date.
- I compared the recruiter email with the official company domain.
- I checked for misspellings, extra words, and substituted characters.
- I independently located the company’s real website.
- I found the position on the official careers page.
- I contacted the company through an independently verified channel.
- I did not pay for equipment, training, or access to earnings.
- I did not provide sensitive information before verification.
- I treated domain age as context—not proof of safety or fraud.
Frequently asked questions
How can I check how old a website is?
Enter the domain into a public RDAP lookup such as OfferSentry’s Domain Age Checker or ICANN Lookup. Review the available registration date and calculate the approximate time since that date.
Does a recently registered domain mean the job is fake?
No. It is a warning signal that should prompt further verification. Legitimate organizations can create new domains, and domain age alone cannot determine whether a job is authentic.
Does an old domain prove the recruiter is legitimate?
No. It does not prove that the sender controls the domain or works for the company. Confirm the recruiter and position independently.
Why is the registration date missing?
Public registration information varies between registries, registrars, and domain types. Some fields may be unavailable, redacted, or returned differently.
What if the recruiter uses Gmail or another personal email?
The FTC identifies personal email accounts used by people claiming to recruit for established companies as a warning sign. Contact the employer independently before responding or sharing information.
Check the domain now
Review available registration dates, approximate age, registrar, expiration information, nameservers, and MX records.