A real employer never asks you to pay to get a job, deposit money to cash out earnings, or fund tasks with cryptocurrency. The Federal Trade Commission's rule is short: anyone who asks you to pay to get a job is a scammer. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and forward the text to 7726.
The message arrives out of nowhere: a part-time remote job, no experience needed, good pay, reply YES. The work is liking videos or rating product photos. The money on screen climbs fast. Then comes the deposit, the fee, the advance payment to release your earnings, and the job disappears.
The numbers are big and getting bigger. The Federal Trade Commission reports that job scam reports nearly tripled between 2020 and 2024, and losses grew from $90 million to $501 million in that period. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center counted 24,688 employment scam complaints in 2025, with nearly $363 million lost.
The pitch starts as an unexpected text or WhatsApp message offering flexible remote work. Reply YES and the conversation moves to a chat app, usually Signal or Telegram, where a fake recruiter assigns the tasks: like a video, rate a product image, leave a review. Each completed task adds a commission to a balance shown on screen.
Then the balance gets locked. To withdraw it, or to unlock higher-paying tasks, you have to deposit money first, often in cryptocurrency. The earnings on screen are fake, the deposit is real, and it is gone the moment it is sent. The FTC documented a 400 percent increase in task-based job scams in 2024, and the pattern is the same every time: the job pays you until the moment it asks you to pay.
You never applied for the job. The pay is high for little work and no experience. The interview is chat-only, on Signal or Telegram, and you are hired within hours. The email comes from a free mailbox, not a company domain. The recruiter asks for your Social Security number, bank details, or ID before any signed offer exists.
There is a second variant worth knowing: the check-and-send-back scam, where the employer sends you a check, asks you to deposit it and send part of it back, and the check bounces a week later. Both versions share the same tell. Money flows from you to them before any real work is done.
Do not reply, do not click any link, and block the number. Forward the text to 7726, the spam reporting short code, and report the scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and at ic3.gov, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. The report matters: it is how these schemes get tracked and shut down.
If you already paid, contact your bank or card issuer now and ask about reversing the transfer. If you shared a Social Security number or ID, go to IdentityTheft.gov and follow the recovery plan. The money is usually gone, but the identity theft is preventable, and the window for stopping it is measured in days.
Two earlier posts on this site cover ground “Task Scams: The 'Product Boosting' Job That Asks You to Pay to Get Paid” builds on: Fake Ticket Listings: The Resale Checks That Catch Most Scams, Fake Charity Scams After a Disaster: How to Check Before You Give, and Fake Invoice Emails: The Red Flags That Catch a BEC Scam Before You Pay.
It is a fake job where the work is liking videos, rating products, or boosting listings, and the earnings shown on screen are fake. The scam arrives when the employer asks for a deposit, a fee, or a cryptocurrency payment to release the balance or advance to higher-paying tasks.
You never applied, the pay is high for little work, the interview is chat-only and you are hired within hours, and the employer asks for money, a Social Security number, or bank details before any signed offer. The FTC's rule is short: anyone who asks you to pay to get a job is a scammer.
Do not reply or click any link. Block the number, forward the text to 7726, and report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. Reporting is how these schemes get tracked.
Contact your bank or card issuer immediately and ask about reversing the transfer. If you shared a Social Security number or ID, go to IdentityTheft.gov and follow the recovery plan. The money is usually unrecoverable, but the identity theft is preventable if you act fast.