“I have an exciting opportunity for you — it’s fully remote, you can choose your hours, there’s no experienced needed, and the pay is great. You’ll be testing new products for our website and sending us feedback on them. Sound good?”
Yes, it does. In fact, it seems almost too good to be true – and that’s because it probably is.
This quarter, we’ve observed a 50% increase in scams involving job offers and new business opportunities. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most common job scams we see, and how to avoid being tricked by them.
Onboarding-fee scams
One telltale sign that the job may be a scam is when you are asked to pay a fee upfront to process your application, or to cover the cost of ‘training materials’ you will need to do the job, before you start work. You may be asked to pay a ‘deposit’ or to cover flights and accommodation costs, which the ‘employer’ claims will be refunded when you start work.
Legitimate employers generally do not ask you for money upfront, and anything you do pay may be lost to a scammer. Any request involving payment in cryptocurrency or other unusual methods is also a red flag.
Social media ‘task work’
This type of scam attracts people with the promise of easy work that usually involves completing basic online actions such as liking posts, writing reviews or comments, or clicking the follow button. These ‘jobs’ are promoted through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Signal. The jobs can be appealing because they pay well and seem to require little effort.
The scam often begins by paying you a small but real amount of money for work completed (for example $20) to show the job is ‘legitimate’. You may then be asked to increase your ‘level’ or ‘tier’ within the company to access better opportunities and increase your earnings. You may also be asked to pay ‘fees’ or ‘taxes’. From this point, victims may try to pursue better opportunities by depositing increasing amounts of money, none of which is likely to be recovered.
Money mules
Some job scams involve receiving money and then forwarding it on to another account. The victim may think they’re doing legitimate work, but they could be an unwitting participant in money laundering, which can result in serious legal consequences for them.
Money laundering is the process of disguising the origin of ‘dirty money’ such as the proceeds of crime or terrorism. Money mule jobs may be presented as finance or remote administration roles, and they may have a ‘commission’ for money transfers. But in reality, the mules are doing illegal work on behalf of bad actors.
Fake recruiters, dodgy offers
If you are contacted by a ‘recruiter’ who claims to be impressed by you and quickly emails you an attractive job offer without a formal interview or reference checks, be very cautious. Such offers may ask for sensitive personal information such as your bank account number, driver’s licence, passport details, or your full name and address. Scammers are known to use these tactics to obtain sensitive personal information, which they can then use for purposes like identity theft and access to bank accounts.
Overpayment scams
Also known as refund scams, this kind of scam can start with an email or chat group message that promotes easy but lucrative work that can be done from home. The scammers will give you a quote for the work, then pay you substantially more than what they quoted. After that, they will say they’ve made a mistake and urgently request that you pay back them back with the difference.
The scam is that the original payment to you was fraudulent and may show as ‘pending’ but will not clear. Meanwhile, the scammers will keep the ‘refund’ that you sent them. Keep in mind that if a transaction in an online account is listed as ‘pending’, it hasn’t been fully completed.
Employment opportunities: warning signs to watch out for
- Offers of work that appear very quickly and don’t need an interview.
- Requests for personal information like your bank account number, passport or driver’s licence details before you sign a contract.
- Requests for upfront fees for training, travel or materials before you start work.
- Requests for deposits through cryptocurrency or overseas accounts.
- Employers who can’t be contacted directly and prefer apps like WhatsApp or Telegram.
- Jobs that involve transferring money or receiving and sending parcels.