Short answer. Yes. It is a prohibited practice to furnish or publish any false notice or information or document in relation to recruitment or employment. The advertisement itself is the offence — nobody has to have paid a fee or been deployed before the prohibition is broken.
What the law says
To furnish or publish any false notice or information or document in relation to recruitment or employment
Labor Code, Article 34 — Prohibited Recruitment Practices. Read the full provision →
The offence is in the publishing, not in the loss
The prohibition is to furnish or publish any false notice or information or document in relation to recruitment or employment. Notice what is absent from that sentence. There is no requirement that anyone paid money, no requirement that anyone travelled, and no requirement that a worker suffered a loss the law can measure. The act complained of is the false notice itself. A poster advertising vacancies that do not exist, a job order for a client that never placed one, a salary figure nobody ever agreed to pay — each is complete as soon as it is put out, which is why an applicant who noticed in time is still describing a prohibited act.
"Furnish" reaches the private conversation too
Publishing suggests something posted where the world can see it, but the provision covers furnishing as well, and does not distinguish between a newspaper page, a social media post, a group chat, or a false statement made across a desk to one applicant. Nor is it limited to notices: false information or document is equally covered, so a fabricated job order, an invented employer name, or a written offer for a post nobody is hiring for falls inside the same clause. The medium is not the point; the falsity in connection with recruitment is.
Who the prohibition binds
The list opens by making the practices unlawful for any individual, entity, licensee, or holder of authority. Both ends of that phrase matter. A licensed agency does not escape by pointing at its licence, and an unlicensed recruiter does not escape by saying the rules apply only to agencies. An individual who posts a fake vacancy is squarely covered. So the common exchange where an applicant is told that this was only a personal referral and the agency is not responsible does not respond to what the section actually says.
Preserve the advertisement before it disappears
Postings are deleted, and the false notice is usually the strongest thing you have. Screenshot it with the date, the account or page that carried it, and the exact wording of the salary and position. Keep the messages that followed, the name of the person you dealt with, and any receipt, however it was labelled. If you have already paid, the payment record and the advertisement together tell the story. Bring both to a lawyer rather than waiting to see whether the promised job eventually materialises.