They tell you that there’s a wonderful job waiting for you. Just fill out a form and send money.

Often there’s no real job. Phony offers snag thousands, regulators and employment pros warn.

“These scams are everywhere. Job scams are the No. 1 scam nationally, because they affect some many people. Male, female, the old, the young,” said Claire Rosenzweig, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for Metro New York.

Indeed, the “median dollar loss to consumers through 2019 was $1,500, up from $1,204 in 2018,” according to BBB Scam Tracker Risk Report. In the same period, employment scams in the Metro New York region went from third to second in the top scam categories.

These scams, says another expert, take many forms.

“For example, a company reaching out, sometimes just wants to make contact with a candidate so they can hit their own metrics or to obtain additional leads,” said Jason Deneu with Robert Half Technology.

Other times, job seekers are conned into handing over money.

“Employers and employment firms shouldn’t ask you to pay for the promise of a job,” says the Federal Trade Commission.

How can one identify a fraud?

“If the person reaching out can’t offer any true insight into the role, or share the company name, then be leery,” Deneu said. “Always do some research on these companies; look them up online, check with state authorities that they really exist,” adds BBB’s Rosenzweig.

And here are some other red flags.

Job offers from strangers: If someone offers you a job without getting an application from you first, meeting you, or doing an interview, it’s a scam.

High pay for simple work: Be wary if ads, e-mails, or callers promise to pay a lot for jobs that don’t seem to require much effort, skill or experience. Usually such offers are scams.