- ‘Gamified job scams’ have increased 485% in the last year
- These encourage job seekers to complete online tasks for small payouts
- This represents a loss of over $6.8 million by 2025
New research from CNC Intelligence has revealed a huge increase in the number of ‘task scams’ or ‘gamified job scams’ targeting job seekers in 2025.
Virtually everyone will be aware of the increasingly difficult job market, with over 7.5 million Americans currently unemployed. This has opened the door for fraudsters to prey on those looking for new opportunities.
The ‘assignment scam’ begins with, you guessed it, an assignment. It is typical to like a video, comment on a product or write a review. From there, the scammers will build trust with a small payout – often via cryptocurrency, but that’s where the generosity ends.
Escalating demands
This is where it starts to get serious. Targets are then encouraged to deposit cryptocurrency into an account to then perform additional tasks – but of course this never happens.
Withdrawals are blocked and “trusted” contacts within the scheme will persuade victims to keep depositing more money to “unlock” additional earnings. These proceeds never materialize and the victims are left with huge losses.
In fact, the research has identified a total loss of $6.8 million to this type of scam by 2025, marking a 485% year-over-year increase.
That’s a total of 4757 reports of assignment fraud – almost six times higher than the 813 seen in 2024.
“Assignment fraud is designed to draw victims into a cycle that becomes harder to escape the longer it continues,” explains Matthew Stern, CEO of CNC Intelligence.
“The early tasks may feel legitimate, but as soon as pressured requests for money start, it is a strong signal that something is not right. No real employer will ever ask you to pay to access your own earnings. Other early clues include payment terms that seem unusually generous, or all communication is done through WhatsApp or Telegram.”
The job market is incredibly difficult right now, which makes it all the more important to be careful with the savings you have.
The most important thing to remember is, just like your bank won’t call you to ask for your information, legitimate job postings won’t ask you to pay you when you do jobs for them, especially not with cryptocurrency.
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