SCAMGUARD-AI: An Explainable Job Scam Risk Detection System

This article introduces the SCAMGUARD-AI project, an explainable job scam risk detection system combining natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning technologies, designed to help job seekers identify fake recruitment information and reduce the risk of job scams. The project is maintained by AkashMs24, released on May 23, 2026, and open-sourced on GitHub (link: https://github.com/AkashMs24/Explainable-Job-Scam-Risk-Detection-System-).

Against the backdrop of the popularization of digital recruitment, job scams have become a serious social issue. Criminals carry out scams such as collecting training fees and leaking sensitive information through fake information. Traditional identification methods (manual review, keyword filtering) have limitations like high cost, low efficiency, and being easily bypassed. SCAMGUARD-AI addresses this pain point by building an explainable detection system.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

• Text preprocessing: word segmentation, stopword removal, stemming
• Semantic understanding: deep semantic and context analysis
• Sentiment analysis: detecting suspicious features like overpromises
• Entity recognition: extracting key entities such as company, position, salary

Machine Learning Models

• Automatic feature learning: discovering scam patterns from data
• Continuous optimization: iterative improvement with new data
• Generalization ability: identifying new types of scam techniques

Explainability

• Feature importance: pointing out key words/patterns affecting judgment
• Decision path visualization: showing the logical chain of judgment
• Risk factor annotation: highlighting suspicious content in the original text

Explainability helps reviewers make secondary judgments and job seekers understand the basis for risk assessment.

The system assesses risks from the following dimensions:

1. Abnormal salary promises: Analyze whether the salary deviates from market levels and whether there are unreasonable combinations of low thresholds and high returns
2. Fee requirements: Detect keywords such as 'training fee' and 'deposit' and related deceptive language
3. Suspicious contact information: Identify non-official contact methods like personal mobile numbers, overseas numbers, and instant messaging accounts
4. Vague job descriptions: Detect ambiguous descriptions (e.g., 'easy' 'no experience required') and lack of specific responsibilities
5. Missing or fake company information: Cross-verify information such as business registration and official websites, and increase risk ratings for unverifiable or fake information

For Job Seekers

• Pre-warning: Identify risks before applying to avoid losses
• Decision support: Understand risk points through explainable results
• Safety awareness education: Improve the ability to identify scam techniques

For Recruitment Platforms

• Automated review: Reduce manual workload and improve efficiency
• Risk grading: Differentiate handling of information with different risk levels
• Data insights: Analyze the evolution of scam features and optimize rules

For Regulatory Authorities

• Situation awareness: Grasp scam trends and hot techniques
• Evidence preservation: Provide technical support and data evidence

Adversarial Attacks

Scammers may rewrite text to evade detection; continuous adversarial training is needed to improve the ability to identify mutated techniques

Multilingual Support

Currently focused on specific languages; need to expand multilingual detection capabilities

Multimodal Fusion

Integrate multimedia information such as images and videos to improve detection accuracy

Real-time Performance and Scalability

Need to achieve low-latency, high-throughput real-time detection to handle massive amounts of information

SCAMGUARD-AI applies NLP and machine learning to job scam detection, with its explainable design being a key highlight. It allows users to understand decision logic, build trust, and realize social value. A reminder to job seekers: while enjoying the convenience of online recruitment, stay vigilant—technology assists, but the final safety decision lies with yourself.