The FTC has warned that employment fraud is on the rise

They have seen an alarming rise in the number of scams in the past year. The FTC says reports of employment fraud will quadruple each year from 2022 to 20,000 reports at a cost of $41 million in the first six months of the year.

A job or job scam often involves a scammer asking someone to do a simple online task like liking videos or rating photos of a given brand using terms like “content promotion” or “app optimization,” according to the FTC. People are promised that they will be paid a lot of money for completing certain investments that may pay a small amount at first but end up spending more money than they pay in the long run.

Hackers reach out to people through text messages or social media apps like WhatsApp to offer them services. The most common type of fraud usually involves some form of cryptocurrency. The hacker can then ask the target to make a deposit or “top up” their account through the app in order to start working on new and bigger projects. They may also try to lure the perpetrators by hearing testimonials from fake people about the amount of money they made doing small jobs.

The victim will “charge” their accounts with their money so they don’t lose what the software shows they’ve earned in hopes of getting their savings and the fees they owe. In fact, the amount they were paid is not real and any money they put in to “pay” their account is lost.

The FTC recommends ignoring offers from anonymous messages or WhatsApp messages and not paying someone for promising to be paid at a certain time or date. The agency also recommends avoiding any activity that involves polling or liking online content, which the FTC says is “illegal and no honest company would engage in.”