{"id":30337,"date":"2025-07-23T04:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/30337\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T04:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:01:06","slug":"how-to-protect-yourself-from-job-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/30337\/","title":{"rendered":"How to protect yourself from job scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 As job-seekers look for work in a challenging environment, an increasing number are falling victim to job scams that promise good pay for completing easy online tasks, according to the Federal Trade Commission.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

As job seekers look for work, an increasing number are falling victim to scams that promise good pay for completing easy online tasks
\n
The tasks seem legitimate, but victims are then told they need to pay money to access their earnings
\n
To avoid falling victim to these scams, ignore unexpected messages, never pay to access your pay, and avoid accepting positions where you rate, like, or leave phony reviews for products or services<\/p>\n

The scams start innocuously, often with a tailor-made text or WhatsApp message, and the scammers take time to build trust with the victim before cashing in on the relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people who end up losing money to a scammer are behaving pretty rationally,\u201d said Kati Daffan, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s division of marketing practices. \u201cScammers are sophisticated, and they keep changing their tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported losses to job scams<\/a> increased more than threefold from 2020 to 2023. In the first half of 2024, they topped $220 million, according to the FTC. Gamified job scams, or task scams, represented a significant portion of that growth. About 20,000 people reported experiencing gamified scams in the first part of 2024, compared to 5,000 in all of 2023.<\/p>\n

Daffan said that the number is certainly an underestimate, because many people don\u2019t report their experiences of job scams to law enforcement or government trackers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly 4.8% of people complain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know:<\/p>\n

How the scams work<\/p>\n

The scam typically begins with an unexpected text or WhatsApp message from a \u201crecruiter\u201d offering online work, according to the FTC. The mystery texter will say you can \u201cmake good money\u201d by \u201cproduct boosting\u201d or doing \u201coptimization tasks\u201d for an online platform or in an app, which might involve liking videos or rating product images.<\/p>\n

This \u201cjob\u201d promises to earn you money from \u201ccommissions\u201d per click. Once you complete the tasks, you\u2019ll see an increasing tally of \u201cearnings\u201d on the platform or in the app. These earnings are fake.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the app or platform will ask you to deposit your own money, typically in crypto, to complete more tasks and withdraw your (non-existent) earnings. But if you make the deposit, you lose your real money, and you never receive the illusory pay.<\/p>\n

Who gets targeted<\/p>\n

Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center<\/a>, said these types of scammers typically prey on job-seekers who are new to the job market, people who have been out of the job market for some time (such as homemakers re-entering the workforce, whose children are grown), and immigrants, who may be less familiar with the employment landscape or who face language barriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften the job will have an easy interview or no interview, promise to let you work from home, and let you start right away,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cSometimes they\u2019ll start with praise, and the person will feel their skills are recognized. \u2018Oh, you think I\u2019m great? Tell me more.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Velasquez emphasized the vulnerability of people looking for work, especially given ongoing economic uncertainty, who may choose to accept a role even if it initially feels shady.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the ask is to leave phony reviews for products,\u201d she said. \u201cThe scammers are probably selling those reviews illegally, but a job-seeker might look at a line and say, \u2018I\u2019ll cross that line. I\u2019ve got to eat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tips for spotting a task-based scam<\/p>\n

Ignore any generic and unexpected texts or WhatsApp messages about jobs, no matter how specific or complimentary the messages.
\nNever pay to get paid, or to get a job. That requirement is a red flag that the position is a scam.
\nDon\u2019t trust employers who say they\u2019ll pay you to rate or like things online, without an above-board process for using the actual products or services you\u2019re rating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 As job-seekers look for work in a challenging environment, an increasing number are falling victim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[2722,2724,7740,28,134,569,7736,7737,3,7738,452],"class_list":{"0":"post-30337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-bowling-green","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-jobs","13":"tag-kentucky","14":"tag-lexington","15":"tag-louisville","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-northern-kentucky","18":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}