The gamification of textbook scam skyrocketed in 2024 , according to Federal Trade Commission data , bring to consumers lose hundreds of millions of dollars to schemes they call up were going to pay them instead .
Over the last four years , the agency has been tracking a Modern breed of scam in which trickster station schoolbook message to victims offering to compensate them in rally for complete a series of straightaway online task . The initial job and rewards are designed to hook victims , then the gouger take a sediment before sending along the next batch of piece of work , which , surprisal surprisal , never add up .
In 2020 , the FTC did n’t invite any account about these so - called task cozenage . Reports began to trickle in over the next few years to the air of around 500 in 2021 , 1,000 in 2022 , and 5,000 in 2023 . But this twelvemonth , the task scam diligence took off . During the first half of 2024 , the FTC pick up more than 20,000 charge .
FTC says text-based task scams skyrocketed in 2024.© Ken Stocker/Shutterstock
The agencysaidconsumers reported losing around $ 223 million to schemes involving simulated jobs in the first half of 2024 and text - found swindles account for intimately 40 percent of those loss . By comparing , consumer reported miss just $ 90 million to job scam of any form in 2020 .
project scams usually bug out with a text or WhatsApp substance from an unknown sender about a vague job chance , according to the FTC . If the recipient responds , they ’re told they can receive payouts in interchange for doing job related to “ app optimization ” or “ Cartesian product boosting . ”
The schemes may seem particularly entice in a world where multitude do make money for microtasks like label AI breeding data point and some victims told the FTC that they really received payouts at the beginning of the outline , extend them to think they ’d found a logical job .
But after a victim is soak , the sender request a deposit before they ’ll send along the next circle of tasks , which will supposedly come with an even bigger payout . Usually , scammers request these payments in cryptocurrency , the FTC said .
To avoid fall dupe to task scams , the FTC recommends that you dismiss unexpected text edition or WhatsApp messages about job chance , especially offers to pay you in commutation for liking thing online . Consumers should also never give anyone as a requirement to getting paid themselves in exchange for work .
“ Someone say you to yield money to get the money you have purportedly garner is a certain sign of a cozenage , ” the agency said . “ No legit business would ever do that . ”
CybersecurityFTCScam
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