Task scam on WhatsApp: You should turn down this tempting job offer

WHATSAPP

June 15, 2024 at 12:05 p.m.

Have you been offered a lucrative job on WhatsApp? Be careful, it’s not a quick buck, but a scam that will cost you dearly.

1. Dubious news circulating

2. Fraud in the name of temporary employment agencies

3. How the scam works

4. How to protect yourself

Cyber ​​criminals send you scams not only in the form of phishing emails and fake apps, but also via WhatsApp. The grandparent scam is probably the most common in messengers. However, another scam has now become established that you should be wary of. It lures you with a job offer with the promise of quick money.

Dubious news circulating

The procedure is always the same. An unknown number writes to you. In the last case we have, it is a human resources consultant called Amy. She calls on behalf of the temporary employment agency ManpowerGroup. Supposedly, your application has arrived and Amy wants to find out whether you are still interested.

Last year, similar texts made the rounds on WhatsApp. In one of the messages, Diana, on behalf of Avomid GmbH, inquires about your professional interest in the company.

A lady named Winona from Universal Hires also wants to know if you are still interested in a job, since she has your application. In this case, Reddit user CartoonistPk got involved in the game and recorded the conversation.

According to this user, the job offer is described in more detail as the conversation continues. You will supposedly receive up to 30,000 per month for optimizing data and can organize your working hours freely. Further details will follow within 48 hours from the “person in charge” via WhatsApp. When asked whether the information could also be forwarded by email, Winona ended the conversation.

Fraud in the name of temporary employment agencies

ManpowerGroup, Avomid GmbH and Universal Hires are all companies that actually exist and are based in Germany. They are always job placement agencies or temporary employment agencies. Some of these employers have a somewhat questionable and sometimes outdated website. This can quickly lead to the thought that they could be fake companies.

However, this does not apply to ManpowerGroup. The company warns on your own homepage against job scamming in their name and shows you how to recognize the scam. You can also send a suspicious message to [email protected]. The support will then tell you whether it is an attempt at fraud or not.

How the scam works

Although the texts are in English, the scam seems to be widespread, especially in Germany, as can be seen from a Reddit-Post But the scam is also slowly gaining ground in other countries. Police in Singapore explicitly warns against such fraud attempts. Apple users are also the target of a very similar fraud attempt.

But what exactly do the senders want to achieve with the message? Their goal is not to get your data or to trick you into installing malware. They want your money. The attempted fraud is a relatively new type of scam, the so-called task scam.

You are asked to complete small tasks for money. Your wages are usually transferred to a fictitious account in the form of Bitcoins. After you have completed a series of tasks, you are finally given a task that costs you money and puts your wage account into the negative.

The “employer” asks you to rebalance the account for a commission. A short time later, you supposedly get the money back, including the surcharge. This is how the scammers want to gain your trust. But it doesn’t stop at just one time and the amounts to be paid become more and more expensive. Since in reality no wages were ever transferred to your crypto account, but you pay into it, you can lose a fortune with the “job”, as Refundee reported.

How to protect yourself

To avoid this happening, you should not accept dubious offers from strangers. We do not recommend that you follow the example of the Reddit user and reply to the message. If you do, the scammers will know that it is an active phone number and could spam you with further scam attempts in the future.

The best thing to do is to block the contact. An antivirus program or an AI-supported application like Scamio can also protect you from such scams.

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