Summary
- The rise of task scams is alarming, with a significant increase in victims and financial losses.
- The FTC shares that there were around 20,000 reports in the first half of 2024, leading to $220 million in losses.
- Protect yourself by avoiding generic job messages and don’t ever pay someone to get paid.
It’s getting harder and harder to trust incoming communications from unknown sources. While it could be a legitimate person or even an office reaching out, years of bad actors have made it imperative to have at least a small bit of skepticism when dealing with these situations.
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Of course, new scams and tricks are popping up every day, with folks always looking to capitalize on the ignorance of others. And a new report from the Federal Trade Commission highlights the rise of task scams, which has grown over the past few years, and could reach new heights heading into 2025 (via Android Authority).
Just something to be aware of
Just in case you’re unfamiliar with how task scams work, a user will be approached about work through the internet, whether it’s through social media or messaging apps. For the most part, the first job will be extremely easy to finish, and will provide users with monetary compensation for doing so.
Once rapport is established, this is when scammers will try and take advantage, requesting users to invest their own finances in jobs in exchange for bigger returns. As you can probably surmise, this is where money is lost and the scammer then cuts ties with the victim. When it comes to the volume of people who are tricked by these task scams, the numbers are on the rise at an alarming rate.
The FTC shares that around 20,000 people have reported the issue just in the first half of 2024, which has resulted in the loss of over $220 million. While this may not sound like a lot, it’s quite a big jump when compared to zero reports of these types of incidents just four years ago, and just 5,000 in 2023. And that’s just including the number of reported incidents, which means there could be even more instances out there.
Of course, there are ways to protect yourself from these types of scams. The FTC shares that it’s wise to avoid generic messages about jobs, and to “never pay anyone to get paid.” And while the tools to detect these types of scams is getting better, we’re still a long way from being completely covered, so it pays to stay vigilant.
If you’re a Pixel owner and want to add an extra layer of security, you can always turn on Scam Protection on your phone. It does require the phone to do lots of scans, but the level of protection it provides is unmatched. It can detect when calls might not be on the level, and provide a warning. For the most part, tools will only get better as time passes, but will it be enough?
