Fake job tasks are costing victims millions, FTC warns

The FTC is warning jobseekers of rising new online scam
'Task' scams ask victims to pay deposits to access paid work
These scams were virtually non-existent in 2021, but have skyrocketed in recent years

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning jobseekers to be wary of an emerging ‘task scam’, which essentially tricks victims into completing repetitive ‘work’ tasks, under the pretense of earning money - but first asking for a ‘deposit’ to secure the assignments.

This type of scam was virtually non-existent just three years ago, but reports of financial loss have shot up in 2024, with the FTC receiving over 20,000 complaints in the first 6 months alone, compared to under 500 in all of 2021.

This translates to a $220 million loss for victims of job related scams in the first half of 2024, with nearly 40% of those being ‘task scams’, according to the agency. Since cryptocurrency is the primary form of payment for these schemes, they have driven the crypto losses - with $41 million lost in employment scams in the same period - double that of 2023 in its entirety.

Don’t pay to get paid

The offer of easy money is always enticing, and fraudsters will often impersonate trusted companies like Amazon or Deloitte, with victims given a set of tasks to complete before moving to the next level.

Interestingly, the FTC has warned this approach has ‘gamified’ the scams, creating an effect similar to gambling, where the victim is sucked in, sometimes with small payouts to build trust, before being goaded into making larger deposits to access bigger tasks - but the deposits are never returned to the victim.

Joobseekers have unfortunately proved frequent targets for scammers, especially for those looking for a remote position - with a request for upfront payment is a common job related scam, making up 25% of cases.

More tactics used by fraudsters are phishing attempts (19%), and requests for confidential data (17%) that can then either be used to commit identity theft, or sold on to malicious actors.

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Ellen has been writing for almost four years, with a focus on post-COVID policy whilst studying for BA Politics and International Relations at the University of Cardiff, followed by an MA in Political Communication. Before joining TechRadar Pro as a Junior Writer, she worked for Future Publishing’s MVC content team, working with merchants and retailers to upload content.