- The FTC is warning job seekers about new forms of online scams
- ‘Task’ scams ask victims to make a deposit to gain access to paid work
- These scams were virtually non-existent in 2021, but have increased dramatically in recent years
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning job seekers to be wary of an emerging ‘job scam’, where victims are essentially enticed to perform repetitive ‘work’ tasks, under the pretense of making money – but first to get a ‘down payment’ ‘ to secure the assignments.
These types of scams were virtually non-existent just three years ago, but reports of financial losses have increased dramatically in 2024, with the FTC receiving more than 20,000 complaints in the first six months alone, compared to fewer than 500 in all of 2021.
This translates to a loss of $220 million for victims of job-related scams in the first half of 2024, nearly 40% of which are “job scams,” according to the agency. Because cryptocurrency is the primary payment method for these schemes, they have doubled crypto losses – with $41 million lost to employment fraud in the same period – compared to 2023 as a whole.
Don’t pay to get paid
The offer of easy money is always tempting, and fraudsters will often pose as trusted companies like Amazon or Deloitte, requiring victims to complete a series of tasks before they can move on to the next level.
Interestingly, the FTC has warned that this approach has ‘gamified’ the scams, creating an effect similar to gambling, where the victim is sucked in, sometimes offering small payouts to build trust, before being prompted to make larger deposits to gain access to larger tasks – but the deposits are never returned to the victim.
Jobseekers have unfortunately often proven to be targets for scammers, especially for those looking for a remote job – requesting advance payment is a common work-related scam, occurring in 25% of cases.
More tactics used by fraudsters include phishing attempts (19%) and requests for confidential data (17%) that can then be used to commit identity theft or resold to malicious actors.