Beware Job Offers Via Text as FTC Says ‘Task Scams’ Are Skyrocketing

The gamification of substance scams skyrocketed successful 2024, according to Federal Trade Commission data, contributing to consumers losing hundreds of millions of dollars to schemes they thought were going to wage them instead.

Over the past 4 years, the bureau has been tracking a caller breed of scams successful which tricksters nonstop substance messages to victims offering to compensate them successful speech for completing a bid of speedy online tasks. The archetypal tasks and rewards are designed to hook victims, past the scammers request a deposit earlier sending on the adjacent batch of work, which, astonishment surprise, ne'er comes.

In 2020, the FTC didn’t person immoderate reports astir these alleged task scams. Reports began to trickle successful implicit the adjacent fewer years to the tune of astir 500 successful 2021, 1,000 successful 2022, and 5,000 successful 2023. But this year, the task scam manufacture took off. During the archetypal fractional of 2024, the FTC received much than 20,000 complaints.

The bureau said consumers reported losing astir $223 cardinal to schemes involving fake jobs successful the archetypal fractional of 2024 and text-based swindles accounted for astir 40 percent of those losses. By comparison, consumers reported losing conscionable $90 cardinal to occupation scams of immoderate benignant successful 2020.

Task scams usually commencement with a substance oregon WhatsApp connection from an chartless sender astir a vague occupation opportunity, according to the FTC. If the recipient responds, they’re told they tin person payouts successful speech for doing tasks related to “app optimization” oregon “product boosting.”

The schemes whitethorn look particularly tempting successful a satellite wherever radical bash marque wealth for microtasks similar labeling AI grooming information and immoderate victims told the FTC that they really received payouts astatine the opening of the schemes, starring them to deliberation they’d recovered a morganatic job.

But aft a unfortunate is hooked, the sender requests a deposit earlier they’ll nonstop on the adjacent acceptable of tasks, which volition supposedly travel with an adjacent bigger payout. Usually, scammers petition these payments successful cryptocurrency, the FTC said.

To debar falling unfortunate to task scams, the FTC recommends that you disregard unexpected substance oregon WhatsApp messages astir occupation opportunities, particularly offers to wage you successful speech for liking things online. Consumers should besides ne'er wage anyone arsenic a prerequisite to getting paid themselves successful speech for work.

“Someone telling you to wage wealth to get the wealth you person supposedly earned is simply a definite motion of a scam,” the bureau said. “No legit concern would ever bash that.”