Game-like ‘task Scams’ Stole More Than $220 Million In Six Months

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is informing Americans astir “game-like online business scams” that get group to execute tasks pinch nan committedness of a continuous income watercourse — only to beryllium duped into giving money to nan scammer. The FTC says successful nan first six months of this year, these “task scams” personification raked successful complete $220 cardinal from victims, often successful nan style of cryptocurrency. It’s accounted for astir 40 percent of each scam reports successful 2024.

There were 20,000 reports of task scams successful nan first half of 2024, a crisp summation from only 5,000 from 2020-2023.

These scams often commencement pinch a WhatsApp aliases matter relationship to a unfortunate asking them to do tasks astir “app optimization” aliases “product boosting.” Sometimes, nan scammers initially net mini amounts of money to look trustworthy. Afterward, they personification victims to net into immoderate tasks pinch nan committedness of a larger payout, and past nan scammers tally distant pinch nan money.

These are nan 3 tips nan FTC listed to debar getting scammed: