An online job scam that appears to mimic crowdsourcing has increased sharply in 2024 over 2023, the Federal Trade Commission reported.

The scam requires consumers to repeat a set of tasks, according to the FTC. Often, such task scams start with a test or WhatsApp message about online work but with few specifics.

When people respond, they are told that they will be completing tasks related to things such as “app optimization” or “product boosting,” according to the FTC. Once they start doing tasks in an online app or platform, people may even receive small payouts from the supposed job, giving them confidence that it’s legitimate. Then the scam pivots and asks people to put their own money in to complete the next set of tasks. The request comes with a promise that it will lead to more money coming back. However, once people send the money, it is lost forever.

Such scams have been on the rise, the FTC said. They totaled about 20,000 in the first half of 2024 compared to 5,000 in the full-year 2023. There were no reports of such scams in 2020.

Task scams often work in cryptocurrency; the increase in task scams has driven reported cryptocurrency losses to job scams to $41 million in the first half of this year.

The FTC is warning consumers to avoid task scams by:

• Ignoring generic and unexpected texts or WhatsApp messages.
• Never paying anyone in order to get paid. No legitimate business would tell a person to pay money to get the money that they have supposedly earned, the FTC said.
• Not trusting anyone who says they will pay you to rate or “like” things online.