Is mercor.com legit or a scam?
Legitimate but controversial AI talent platform with mixed user reviews, recent data breach, and complaints about aggressive recruitment practices.
These checks passed — but they don't clear the site. A clean antivirus result, valid SSL, and a calm server only mean it isn't hosting malware; they say nothing about whether the business is real. This verdict is based on the site's conduct and content, not a malware detection.
Analysis Summary
Tech-support scare page — do not call the number
Legitimate but controversial AI talent platform with mixed user reviews, recent data breach, and complaints about aggressive recruitment practices. Some signals suggest this is a fake support / scare page. Don't call any displayed number and don't install any "support" software.
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site. See full visual analysis →
Visual Screenshot Analysis
We capture a fresh screenshot of the live page and ask a vision model to look for scam visual patterns — fake trust badges, countdown timers, overlay pop-ups, and visual clones of legitimate brands.
Visual red flags detected in the screenshot
The page presents as a legitimate AI freelance/expert marketplace (Mercor) with a polished design and standard navigation; the only minor concern is an unverified stat bar and one malformed salary range display, neither of which alone indicates fraudulent intent.
What our vision model saw
5 signalsHeader stat bar displays unverified aggregate claims ('$96/hr average pay', '271.3k roles created', '$3.0M+ daily payouts') with no sourcing or verification indicators.
Job listing card shows '$1k-$1k' pay range, which is an inconsistent/malformed salary display that may indicate data quality issues.
Professional, clean layout with consistent branding, navigation, and job listing cards consistent with a legitimate gig/freelance platform.
No countdown timers, urgency tactics, fake trust badges, or suspicious overlays detected.
No credential harvesting forms, wallet seed requests, or pre-filled sensitive data fields visible.
MT Intelligence
Mercor.com is the official website of Mercor.io Corporation, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2023 that has raised $350 million in Series C funding at a $10 billion valuation. Our antivirus network and browser blocklists show no malicious flags, and the domain is 24+ years old with valid SSL and clean hosting reputation. However, the evidence package reveals a split user perception: positive reviews confirm the company pays for completed work and is legitimate, while negative reviews on Glassdoor, Medium, and an independent review aggregator describe aggressive AI-driven interviews perceived as data harvesting without guaranteed employment, spam recruitment emails, and difficulty landing projects. A March 2026 supply-chain attack via a compromised LiteLLM library exposed approximately 4TB of contractor data including personal information and video interviews, triggering class-action lawsuits and pausing work from major partners like Meta. The scam-family match to 'Tech-Support Scam' appears to be a false positive tied to job postings for support roles and impersonators using Mercor's name on LinkedIn, not the company itself. The unverified stat bar on the homepage and malformed salary display suggest minor data-quality issues but do not indicate fraud.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for mercor.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- Mercor.com is the official website of Mercor.io Corporation, a San Francisco-based AI startup founded in 2023 by Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha.
- Business focuses on matching domain experts (engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.) with AI labs for RLHF, model training, and data labeling; claims partnerships with top AI labs and $2M+ daily payouts to its network.
- Raised $350 million in Series C funding in 2025 at a $10 billion valuation; described as profitable with 300 employees and over 30,000 experts in its talent network.
- Common user complaints include AI-driven interviews perceived as data collection for training without guaranteed paid work, spam emails, difficulty landing projects, and some reviews labeling it a "scam" for these practices.
- Positive feedback confirms it is a legitimate company that pays for completed work, though securing contracts can take months and is competitive.
- In March 2026, suffered a supply-chain attack via compromised LiteLLM library exposing ~4TB of data including contractor PII, video interviews, and possibly AI rubrics; led to class-action lawsuits, Meta pausing work, and investigations.
- No direct connection found to "Tech-Support Scam" family; some job postings exist for technical support/fraud roles, but scam alerts refer to impersonators using Mercor's name on LinkedIn.
- Glassdooropen
"They are scamming and spamming people. They ask people to do an interview for them to get training data."
- Mediumopen
"Mercor is a Scam. ... The Scam of getting a “Call Back” they are turning the hiring process into spam."
- LinkedIn (post)open
"Scammers are increasingly targeting job seekers by impersonating Mercor, a legitimate AI-powered talent marketplace."
- Facebook groupopen
"On Reddit, I read many negative comments saying it is a scam, that Mercor collects people's personal data through the AI interview"
- Trustpilot reviewopen
"They Do NOT Post Real Tech Jobs ... They just exploit your work to train AI models that one day Will Replace Your Job."
- Reddit (r/developersIndia)open
"Mercor is genuine. It's a talent pool where you're shortlisted through AI interviews and proctored assessments and then offered remote jobs in US based"
- Reddit (r/mercor_ai)open
"Yes, Mercor is a legitimate company. It links you with projects based on your specialized skills and/or profession."
- Jobright.ai blogopen
"This reviewer echoes a concern a lot of people have: the platform isn't a scam, but actually landing paid work can be difficult."
- Benture.io blogopen
"TLDR: Yes, Mercor is legit. ... Mercor is a real company that pays real money. “Yes, I got paid. I recorded time for reviewing the training materials"
- Trustpilotopen
"Mercor Reviews 371 · Staff. Customers consistently note positive experiences with staff , highlighting the supportive, communicative, and..."
Mercor.io Corporation, founded 2023, headquartered at 181 Fremont, San Francisco, CA. Raised $350M Series C at $10B valuation (2025). ~300 employees, manages 30k+ contractors.
Our research found 5 scam reports and 5 positive reviews. Negative feedback on Glassdoor, Medium, and an independent review aggregator describes the platform's AI-driven interview process as invasive data collection, complains of spam recruitment emails, and criticizes the difficulty of landing paid projects. Positive reviews on Reddit and independent job-review blogs confirm Mercor is a legitimate company that pays for completed work, though securing contracts can take months and is competitive. Business registration data confirms Mercor.io Corporation is an active U.S. company founded in 2023, headquartered in San Francisco, with $350M Series C funding at a $10B valuation and approximately 300 employees managing 30,000+ contractors. A significant March 2026 data breach via a compromised LiteLLM library exposed approximately 4TB of contractor personal information, video interviews, and possibly AI evaluation rubrics, leading to class-action lawsuits and pausing of work by major partners including Meta. Impersonators have been reported using Mercor's name on LinkedIn to target job seekers, but the official site is not a clone of a known brand.
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Contact Verification
We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.
- No contact email found anywhere on the page.
- No phone number listed on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
- Scam family match: Tech-Support Scam.
- Links to 4 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://mercor.com/
- 2200https://www.mercor.com/cross-domain
Server Reputation
Scam-Type Likelihood
1 scam-type patterns detected
1 of 13 categories showed signals
We check every URL against 13 distinct scam categories so the verdict tells you not just how risky the page is, but what kind of risk it carries. Each meter pulls from page signals, web reports, our AI analyst, vision, and the scam-network cluster — not from raw AV labels.
- Classic tech-support scare copy found (fake Microsoft/Apple alert, remote-access instructions).
- Primary scraped category: fake tech-support page.
1 of 13 categories showed signals
We check every URL against 13 distinct scam categories so the verdict tells you not just how risky the page is, but what kind of risk it carries. Each meter pulls from page signals, web reports, our AI analyst, vision, and the scam-network cluster — not from raw AV labels.
- Classic tech-support scare copy found (fake Microsoft/Apple alert, remote-access instructions).
- Primary scraped category: fake tech-support page.
Possible tech-support scare page
Pages like this impersonate Microsoft, Apple, or your ISP to trick you into calling a number or granting remote access.
- Treat mercor.com as unverified
Do not enter credentials or send money until you have independently verified the business.
- Do not call the number and do not install any "support" tool
Microsoft, Apple, Google, and legitimate ISPs never show a pop-up with a phone number. Installing AnyDesk, TeamViewer, or "Windows Support" at their request hands over your computer.
- Close the page — end the browser process if needed
If the page has locked your browser, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc (Windows) or Cmd+Option+Esc (Mac) and end the browser task. Reopen your browser with "Don't restore tabs".
- OpenIf you already gave remote access or paid
Disconnect the device from the internet. Run a full scan with Malwarebytes or a reputable AV. Change your passwords from a different device. Call your bank to dispute any payment and request a new card.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
Safety FAQ
Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.
- Our automated security review marked mercor.com as suspicious. Several warning signs were detected; it may still turn out legitimate, but you should verify it through independent channels before trusting it with money or credentials.
- mercor.com currently scores 55/100 on our trust scale. We found enough warning signals to recommend caution. Verify the site through independent channels before entering credentials or money.
- Yes. mercor.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Amazon · Amazon RSA 2048 M04, expiring in 168 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
- mercor.com is 24.2 years old, registered on 4/26/2002 through NameCheap, Inc.. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
- No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report mercor.com as clean.
- No. mercor.com is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
- mercor.com resolves to an IP operated by Amazon Technologies Inc. in US (usage type: Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
- Yes. mercor.com sits in the global top-100k on Cloudflare Radar, which means it has substantial real-world traffic. That does not automatically make it safe, but established brands almost always rank here and throwaway scam domains almost never do.
User reviews & comments(0)
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