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How to Spot Data Annotation Scams and Lookalike Websites
Kenya-first insights, practical and grounded.
Published 03/08/2026 - 2 min read
How to Spot Data Annotation Scams and Lookalike Websites
Fast-growing AI work attracts impostors. Common approaches include a WhatsApp recruiter promising guaranteed work, an “activation” payment, a cloned login page, a paid account, a request to receive money through someone else's wallet or a form collecting ID before any verifiable application exists.
Handshake's official safety guide says Handshake and Handshake AI do not send offers by SMS or WhatsApp. It identifies unusually high pay for little work as a warning and tells users to confirm suspicious communications with its official team.
A five-minute legitimacy check
- Navigate from the company's official homepage; do not trust the message link.
- Compare the full domain character by character, including the ending.
- Find the role on the official vacancy board or signed-in dashboard.
- Verify the sender domain and contact support through a separately sourced page.
- Search the official help centre for onboarding, verification and payment providers.
A site using “Handshake AI” in its branding is not automatically connected to Handshake. Country-code domains, social pages and copied logos prove nothing by themselves. Until ownership is verified through the official company, label it unverified—not official and not automatically fraudulent.
Protect yourself
Never pay to unlock tasks, buy an account or submit ID over chat. Use unique passwords and multifactor authentication where available. If you entered credentials on a suspicious page, change the password from the real site, secure your email, revoke sessions and report the incident. If money or identity documents were taken, preserve evidence and contact the relevant provider and Kenyan authorities.
The AI Training & Data Annotation Work Guide for Kenya includes a domain-check checklist and incident log.
Sources
- Handshake AI: getting started and staying safe
- Handshake identity and account authenticity
- Alignerr onboarding process
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