A job offer out of nowhere, or easy pay for small online tasks, until you must pay to start or to get your earnings. How to tell a real job from a scam.
Text Message
Hi, I'm Emma from a recruitment agency. We have a remote job rating products online, $300–$800 a day, flexible hours. Interested? Reply YES and I'll message you on WhatsApp.
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Text Message
Hi, I'm Emma from a recruitment agency. We have a remote job rating products online, $300–$800 a day, flexible hours. Interested? Reply YES and I'll message you on WhatsApp.
Your account shows $1,640 in commission. To withdraw it, first top up $500 to unlock your last set of tasks.
From to me
Congratulations, you're hired as a remote assistant. We'll send you a check to buy your home-office equipment from our approved supplier.
Examples. The names and amounts change; the shape doesn't.
A job you didn't apply for, or an interview only by chat, on WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal or a social app, and you're “hired” within a day.
Pay that's too good for the work: liking videos, rating products, “boosting” apps.
You must pay: a deposit, training, equipment, or a “top-up” to get your earnings. Real jobs never ask you to pay to start.
A check to deposit, and money to send on. The check bounces days later, and the money you sent is gone.
Your ID and bank details before you've signed an offer, or an “IT” call that wants to share your screen or install software on your own computer.
Don't pay, and don't send money on from a check someone sent you.
Look up the company yourself and apply through its own website. If the job isn't on the company's own careers page, the person writing to you probably isn't from it.
Still not sure? Check the message. We open its link on a phone and a computer, not yours, and tell you what it is.
Then block them. You can report it to your police or your country's fraud reporting service. Your phone may also let you report it as junk or spam. In the US and UK, you can also forward a scam text to 7726.
In the US: ReportFraud.ftc.gov (the FTC's website, opens in a new tab)
The first tasks really pay, so it feels real. Then the amount you must put in to “unlock” your earnings keeps growing.