It started with a phone call.
I had just graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. degree in Media Industries and Communication. Like other new grads, I had spent the past weeks doing job applications, sending out résumés, refreshing my inbox, etc. Then one afternoon, I got a call.
It was someone named Jessica calling to say that they had received my application for a “communications assistant” position that I had apparently applied for, and they would like to schedule an interview with me. After confirming my interest and briefly going over my resume, we scheduled for an interview the next Monday at their downtown LA office.
I was genuinely excited as this was one of the few jobs that had gotten back to me, and they sounded interested and eager to hire me.
It made sense on paper, but there was one problem: I couldn’t find the job posting. I went back through every role I had applied for in the past few weeks. There were only a handful “communications assistant” roles and none of them were for the company Jessica claimed to work for.
My first instinct was that it was a scam. Employment scams are everywhere. But this didn’t feel like a typical scam. Jessica was a real person. She called from a real number. And most importantly, she gave me a real office address that I could walk into on Monday.
The stakes were clearly too high for them to run a typical scam. I looked up the company name on Google and found that there were actually two companies sharing it: one was a legitimate business based out of Utah, and the other was a separate entity operating out of Los Angeles.
I pulled up their .info domain website, which was already a red flag. The site looked like it was put together in twenty minutes using a free template, mentioning buzzwords like “high-impact,” “brand activations,” and “experiential excellence.” The photos were seemingly AI-generated and so were the blog posts. I ran a WHOIS search on the domain and confirmed what I already suspected: it was a new domain, registered just two months prior.
That’s when my excitement officially died and suspicion took over. With an interview scheduled on Monday, I still didn’t know anything about the actual job. I was about to walk into an interview with minimal prep for a job I couldn’t find on any job board, at a company with a two-month-old AI-slop website and a stolen name. Every single indicator pointed to one thing: a Devil Corp.
What is a devil corp?
Devil corps are predatory operations disguised as legitimate businesses that bait job seekers with deceptive job postings. Once signed up, recruits are expected to cold-approach strangers inside grocery stores to make commission-only sales with zero guaranteed income.
According to devilcorp.org, an OSINT site tracking these organizations, “Workers are recruited as self-employed and paid on a commission-only basis, with no guaranteed pay or employment rights. Earnings depend entirely on sales performance, and cancellations can leave workers effectively unpaid for hours of work.”
This is also why you’ll often see them using the word “opportunity” instead of “job,” “employment,” or “work” in their postings. “Opportunity” is legally meaningless while “job” implies an employer-employee relationship which opens them up to labor law and minimum wage obligations.
How to spot a devil corp
After my interview, I landed a few more calls with similar organizations. Since I had no intention of taking these jobs, I used them as practice to sharpen my interview skills, all while collecting information to help others avoid falling for the same scheme. Here’s what devil corps operations tend to have in common.
1. Vague or Misleading Job Titles
Devil corps are notorious for misleading job titles like “Entry Level Marketing,” “Marketing Manager,” or “Event Marketing Coordinator.” This alone doesn’t confirm anything, but in combination with the other signs on this list, it’s a clear red flag.
2. Buzzwords
Devil Corps rely on a specific set of buzzwords to make their operation sound legitimate. “Opportunity” is used instead of “job” or “work” because calling it a job would open them up to labor law. “Management training program” is their way of promising that after a few weeks of field work, you’ll be promoted to a leadership position with fewer responsibilities, or that you’ll eventually run your own business. Both of these claims are misleading. According to people who’ve actually worked at these companies, people in higher-up positions get assigned more tasks with no increase in pay. “Unlimited earning potential” is how they justify the lack of a guaranteed base salary. If you see any of these buzzwords, especially the last two, you may be dealing with a devil corp.
3. Motivational Quotes
Their websites and offices are filled with motivational quotes about financial freedom and the growth mindset. These are designed to distract recruits from the fact that there is no guaranteed base salary and keep them from leaving. Turnover rates at these companies are notoriously high, which is why they keep hiring continuously.
4. Rapid Interview Process
Devil corp interviews move suspiciously fast from start to finish. They might call or text you within hours of reviewing your application and try to set up a meeting for the next day. This is a deliberate high-pressure tactic to not give you enough time to research the company before you show up. First round interviews are usually done in a group with other candidates, where they ask a handful of basic questions to make it feel like a real interview, then tell the candidates that they will receive a call or a text if they’re selected. Almost everyone passes the first round because it was never really an interview to begin with.
5. A New, Low-Quality Website
Many Devil corps have visibly low-quality websites that include a few pages of generic stock photos, and have no portfolio and no real substance. They’re only made to maintain the illusion of a legitimate company. Some sites will have job application forms directly on the site, though most of these groups recruit through job boards. If something feels off, you can run a a WHOIS search on the domain to see when the domain was registered. A newly registered domain is a red flag.
6. The Company Shows Up on r/devilcorp
Search the company name on Google and check if anything from Reddit’s r/devilcorp community comes up. If you find a thread full of people wondering the same thing, you already have your answer.
My interview with devil corps
On Monday I showed up to an office building in the fashion district and walked into an office full of motivational quotes. After filling out a short form with my basic contact information, I was greeted by the manager, Justin. In under five minutes he skimmed my resume, asked a few generic interview questions, and tried to wrap things up, but not before I could ask him a few questions.
When I told Justin that I couldn’t find the job posting I had apparently applied for and asked him to describe the actual role, he dodged by saying “it’s an event marketing job.” When I pressed him on salary, he claimed it was $900-1000 a week, which is misleading at best and a complete lie at worst.
Without satisfactory answers from Justin, I decided to interview with another devil corp. This time I was with another candidate on a Zoom call which is more typical for these operations. The interviewer opened with the usual corporate-speak introduction and asked if we had any questions. I asked about salary and was told point blank that “there is no salary for this position.” He then walked us through the company structure and their “management training program” before moving to the interview questions. I intentionally answered some of them wrong to see if it would disqualify me. It did not. After the Zoom call I got a text saying they’d love to move forward to an in-person meeting, which I declined.
The most effective way to avoid devil corps is to be skeptical. If a job offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Always do your research before accepting a job. Use tools like LinkedIn to see if you can find actual employees and see what their roles are. Look up their company to see if it’s established and legitimate. When interviewing, ask specific questions about the day-to-day responsibilities and what the actual job is. Many devil corps will avoid discussing the details and will try to keep things vague and moving fast.
This article only scratches the surface of these operations. To learn more about them, including their MLM-adjacent structure and cult behavior, check out the The Slave Circle documentary on YouTube.
