has seen an alarming rise in gamified job scams over the past year. The FTC says reports of job scams have quadrupled each year since 2022, peaking at 20,000 reports costing $41 million in total during the first six months of the year.
According to the FTC, job or task scams often involve the scammer asking someone to perform a relatively simple task online, such as liking videos or rating product images in assigned sets using terms like “product boost.” ” or “application optimization”. People are promised higher payouts for completing a certain number of sets which may pay small amounts at first, but end up costing more than they pay in the long run.
Scammers will approach people via text messages or communication apps like Whatsapp offering them a job. The most common type of this scam usually involves some type of cryptocurrency. The scammer may then ask their target to deposit some money or “top up” their account through an app to start working on new, larger sets of tasks. They may even try to convince their victims by listening to testimonials from fake recipients about how much money they earned by completing relatively simple tasks.
The victim will “load” their accounts with their own money to avoid losing what the app shows they have earned in the hopes of recovering the money deposited and the fee they are owed. Instead, the money they have been paid is not real and any money they have deposited to “load” their account is lost forever.
The FTC recommends ignoring offers from unknown text or WhatsApp messages and never paying someone with the promise of receiving payment at a later time or date. The commission also recommends staying away from any job offers that involve rating or liking things online, a practice the FTC says is “illegal and no honest company will do it.”
