In short
A recruiter offers easy remote work rating products or liking videos. Then you have to pay to unlock your earnings. Learn the pattern and the red flags.
Top warning signs: A job you never applied for; High pay for trivial tasks; Moving to WhatsApp or Telegram.
First thing to do: Don't reply, and block the sender. Report the chat in the app.
How the scam works
You're added to a group where others (fake accounts) celebrate their earnings. You complete simple tasks in a website or app and see commission building up. You may even withdraw a small amount.
Then you get a “combination task” or “premium order” that puts your account in negative balance. To continue, and to get your earnings, you must deposit your own money, usually in crypto. The deposits grow until you give up.
Red flags to look for
- A job you never applied for. Real recruiters rarely offer a job without an interview.
- High pay for trivial tasks. Liking videos or rating products doesn't pay hundreds a day.
- Moving to WhatsApp or Telegram. Scammers avoid platforms with protections.
- Paying to work or to unlock earnings. A real employer never asks you to pay them.
What to do if you get one
- Don't reply, and block the sender. Report the chat in the app.
- Look up the company yourself and contact it through its official website.
If you already paid or shared details
Act quickly. It makes a difference.
- Stop depositing. The “negative balance” will never clear.
- Report to your bank or crypto exchange and to the police. Keep all chat history and wallet addresses.
- Watch for recovery scams offering to get your money back.
More help: what to do after a scam, and where to report it in your country.
How to protect yourself next time
Watch for anyone using your identity
If you shared ID documents, card details or a Social Security number, monitoring can alert you when someone opens credit or accounts in your name.
Free: In the US, a credit freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion is free and blocks most new-credit fraud. Elsewhere, ask your bank and your credit reference agency about fraud alerts.
- Aura Partner link US identity theft protection with credit monitoring and fraud insurance.
Take your details off data broker sites
Scammers buy phone numbers, home addresses and family details from people-search and data broker sites. The less of that is public, the fewer and less convincing the scam messages you get.
Free: You can ask each site to delete your details yourself. In the EU and the UK, data protection law gives you that right.
- Incogni Partner link Sends removal requests to data brokers for you, and keeps sending them.
Compare the tools that help, and what each costs
Links marked Partner link may earn us a commission, at no cost to you. It never changes our advice, and the free option always comes first. Affiliate disclosure.
Questions people ask
They paid me at the start. Doesn't that make it legitimate?
Early payouts are a deliberate trust-building step. They are small amounts compared with what they plan to take.
Have you had this one?
Tell other people what the message said and how it reached you. It helps someone recognise it before they tap.
No stories yet. Yours could be the one that warns someone.
Official sources and further reading
We check our guides against advice from government agencies and consumer protection bodies.
- Jobs and employment scams (Scamwatch, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)
- Scammers Defraud Individuals via Work-From-Home Scams (US FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center)
- Job fraud (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre)
