Don’t Fall for Task-Based Job Scams: Keep Your Money Safe

If you're looking for additional income streams that allow you to work from home, you may want to add task-based jobs to your list. But before you commit to these gigs, you should double-check that the offer is genuine.

Many people have fallen for scams on platforms offering fake task-based jobs. These scams can cost victims hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Let's dig deeper!

---

Scam Detectors Most Trusted Websites in Online Security

1. Guard.io (100): Protect your digital world on any device – Guardio stops scams and phishing in their tracks.
2. Incogni.com (100): Delete your personal data from the internet and protect against scams and identity theft.
3. ExpressVPN (100) Stay secure and anonymous online - Best VPN Out There

---

How Do Task Scams Work?

If you're looking for a remote task-based job, you should ensure the job offer you're about to accept is legit. Task scams typically start with scammers offering task jobs where victims can potentially earn massive amounts of money.

They mostly use e-commerce platforms like Amazon. In Asian countries, the most common companies these scammers use are Lazada and Shopee, and with Temu being part of the market, it's not so surprising if they start using it as well. Scammers use many platforms such as job websites and social media to reach more people. They pretend to represent legitimate companies when they contact you.

They may invite you to quickly visit the genuine company's website to earn your trust. If you do a quick online search, you can actually verify information about the company they're impersonating.

The scammers will describe the tasks they want you to do and promise payment for each set of tasks. They often claim no experience is needed and that you can work from home with a daily salary. This promise of daily pay can be very tempting.

Once you agree, they'll ask you to log into the company's supposed internal portal to complete your tasks. Unfortunately, the so-called internal portal is a fraudulent website for collecting personal and financial information.

At first, these scammers may pay you with real money to complete the assigned tasks and gain your trust. Later, they might suggest paying you in cryptocurrency to streamline the payment process. Sometimes, they'll suggest cryptocurrency payments right from the start.

Scammers Step Up Their Game

As time passes and you become more convinced the job is legitimate, they'll ask you to deposit substantial money to complete a specific set of tasks. The core of this scam involves completing tasks that mimic customer purchasing behavior to boost a company's sales.

Eventually, you'll encounter tasks that result in your account showing a negative balance. To proceed to the next task, you'll be asked to add funds to your account with real money or cryptocurrency.

At each stage, you'll be required to add more money. Scammers will label these tasks as ‘premium‘ and congratulate you for being randomly selected by their system for special testing. They'll emphasize that these premium tasks unlock higher commissions.

The scammers will promise refunds and even higher earnings once you complete this specific set of tasks. This step often marks the beginning of the end of your interaction with them.

After convincing you to deposit the money, they disappear. If you try to stop and ask for your money back, they'll say you can only get a refund once you've finished all the tasks. They'll explain to you that's the ‘company's policy.'

That's just one big lie.

You won't get your money back even if you pay thousands of dollars to complete those tasks. Once they realize you can no longer afford to top up your account, they'll stop responding and delete your account.

All they care about is squeezing as much money as possible from your pocket.

Task Scam Variations

In another version of this scam, you're assigned a series of tasks and asked to top up your account with a set amount to access the next task. Scammers promise to refund this money once all tasks are completed.

However, after finishing all the tasks, a blocking mechanism activates, asking you to pay a percentage of your earnings to unlock the funds. So, the scammers win twice: first, when you top up your account, and again, when you pay the fee to unlock your funds. However, paying this fee won't trigger any refund mechanism. It's another trick scammers use to squeeze more money from your wallet.

In other scenarios, the scammers instruct the victims to purchase gift cards and send the codes back, supposedly to test the company's gift card system. Alternatively, they could be asked to transfer money between accounts to test the company's payment processing system.

In reality, you're only sending money from your pocket to the scammers' pockets.

Red Flags You Should Never Ignore

1. Unsolicited Messages

Always be suspicious of unsolicited messages. That's how scammers first contact their potential victims. Legitimate headhunters don't operate in the field of task-based jobs. If you're genuinely interested in a job, you should usually be the one initiating contact.

2. Better Than Average Pay

Another red flag should be if you're offered significantly more money than the average pay for the tasks involved. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be skeptical of easy money.

3. Getting Paid in Cryptocurrency

Most legitimate jobs won't pay employees or independent contractors in cryptocurrency. Remember, cryptocurrency is unregulated. If you're offered payment in cryptocurrency, suspicions should be raised about the shady reason behind the offer

4. You Need to Pay to Complete Your Tasks

The moment you're asked to top up your job account with real money or cryptocurrency, it should set off all your alarm bells. Even if everything has gone smoothly up until then, this should be when you realize something is wrong. A legitimate company would never ask you to make payments as part of your job.

As you progress into your tasks, they become increasingly costly. At one point, your account will be in the red, and you'll be pressured to top it up with money or cryptocurrency to access ‘premium tasks‘ promising high commissions.

If you say you can't add more money, scammers might suggest you take out loans or borrow money from friends.

5. URL Inconsistency

If the URL of the internal portal is different from the official company website you were originally directed to, that's a strong indication you're dealing with scammers.

6. Spelling and Grammar Errors

Spelling or grammar errors are always present when communicating with scammers. Often, English is not their first language, they rush their messages, and they don't care about being professional.

Potential Losses

Each time you top up your account, you lose money. The portal where you complete your tasks is a website designed to steal your data. Scammers can steal and use your personal information for fraud, including saving your card details to extract more money from your bank account.

You also risk legal trouble, especially if the scammers use your data for other illegal activities.

Realizing you’ve been scammed can cause stress and anxiety. That's why you should never ignore these red flags and your gut feeling.

Conclusion

Be careful and research job offers to avoid scams. Real task-based jobs won't ask you to pay money to complete a specific set of tasks. Stay alert to protect your personal information and money.

How to Report Scammers

Share this article to warn your family and friends about this scam to prevent them from falling victim.

You can report scammers and any suspicious activity to the Federal Trade, and the FBI Internet Complaint Center by using the pages below:

• Report to the FTC
• Report to the FBI Internet Complaints Center

How To Protect Yourself More

Do you want to receive notifications about the most notorious scams on a regular basis?

Subscribe to our scam alerts.

You will receive periodic emails from Scam Detector with exclusive tips. Those will include info on how to prevent fraud and insights about the newest tools you can use to fight crime.

Feel free to explore additional articles on related fraud below that is widely known in the job scam industry. Last but not least, if you had any bad experiences, make sure to use the comments section below to expose the scammers!

Write App Reviews Scam

LinkedIn Job Offer Scam

16 Work-From-Home Scams