The Better Business Bureau is warning that a fast-spreading form of employment fraud is getting worse, News 12 reported. The watchdog says the latest incarnation of work scams, which it calls task scams, is taking a growing toll on people looking for easy ways to earn money.
The schemes tend to begin the same way. According to the report, they arrive as unsolicited job offers sent by text message, with the BBB describing the trend as task optimization scams that are skyrocketing.
The numbers behind the warning are striking. The BBB says there were 12,000 reports of task scams in 2024, a figure that jumped to more than 23,000 the following year, an increase of 98 percent in just one year.
Investigators say the scams generally follow one of two paths. In one version, the scammers simply get the victim to hand over their bank account information and then clean out the account.
The other version dangles the promise of bigger payouts. In that setup, victims are told they can make even more money but first have to put some cash in upfront, and either way, the BBB says, they end up losing.
The consequences can be severe. According to the report, the BBB's scam tracker is full of accounts from people who say they lost thousands upon thousands of dollars to these schemes.
To help people avoid becoming the next victim, the bureau laid out its red flags. It urges consumers to be wary of any unsolicited job offer, especially one that comes in by text, not to be fooled by high pay for simple work such as liking videos, to avoid any upfront costs, and to hang up if a so-called recruiter starts using high-pressure tactics, stressing that it should not cost money to get paid.