Apna.co has introduced a new initiative called Apna Safety, an AI-powered verification system aimed at combatting job scams during India’s extensive hiring season. With the festive period approaching, the platform seeks to enhance trust among job seekers by verifying recruiters against official records and digital patterns.
In a pilot program conducted in August and September 2025, Apna Safety verified over 146,000 recruiters, resulting in a significant 45% reduction in fraud exposure for job seekers. Following the pilot, safety-related complaints on the Apna app’s Play Store listing decreased by 60%, while the app achieved a 4.7 rating, the highest among job platforms in India. This initiative primarily benefits freshers and first-time job seekers, a demographic often targeted by scams.
Enhancing Trust Through AI
The Apna Safety system allows candidates to validate a recruiter’s authenticity by entering a phone number on the Apna app or visiting apna.co/apna-safety. Recruiters are categorized as active, blocked, or unregistered, and suspicious profiles can easily be reported. Apna’s AI employs multiple layers of verification, checking company legitimacy against records such as GST, PAN, and CIN. It also validates recruiter details using Aadhaar, cross-referencing this information with domains, legal business names, and digital activity patterns to generate a credibility score.
Recruiters who do not meet these verification standards are either restricted or blocked, thereby safeguarding candidates from fraudulent practices from the outset of their job search. Furthermore, the system identifies common scam patterns and alerts candidates about red flags, such as requests for registration fees, security deposits, or training charges. By embedding these alerts within the job search experience, Apna enhances real-time awareness and reinforces trust during the hiring process.
Addressing a Pervasive Issue
Job scams remain a significant challenge in India, with fraudsters frequently impersonating recruiters and soliciting fake fees. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) reported that Indians lost over ₹22,800 crore to cyber fraud in 2024, with job-related scams being the largest category of complaints. Industry estimates suggest that job scams alone may have cost India approximately ₹5,100 crore. The sectors most affected include e-commerce, logistics, telecalling, customer support, and warehouse operations, where hiring intensifies during the festive season.
Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO of Apna.co, commented on the launch, stating, “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. With AI-powered Apna Safety, we are setting a new standard for verification and accountability in the hiring ecosystem and moving decisively toward a scam-free job market.”
In the third quarter of 2025 alone, Apna facilitated over 2.7 crore job applications, highlighting the scale of opportunity and the responsibility the platform carries. Parikh emphasized the mission to allow every Indian to pursue job opportunities with confidence, dignity, and safety, committing to raising the bar for trust within India’s workforce.
