These phoney job ads are sent via text and WhatsApp, and claim to offer lots of money to complete tasks in your own time. These scams are typically used by fraudsters to groom you into an elaborate scam.
Below, we look at the four latest job scam messages currently circulating, and how you can spot and avoid them.
1. Recruitment impersonation scam
On WhatsApp, scammers are masking their numbers, known as spoofing, to send unsolicited messages telling you that they’re from legitimate recruitment agencies.
In some cases, the scammer behind the message is impersonating a real person at at a recruitment agency, so if you do some research you could be fooled into thinking they're a real person.
The message will typically offer to share some more specific details about a job with you.
2. HR department message
In other recent job scam texts Which? has seen, fraudsters claim to be from a ‘HR department’ and tell you that they like your CV.
Some victims of this scam may actually be in the process of looking for a job and have posted their CV to job sites, making it even more convincing.
The message goes on to offer a salary of ‘£200-500’ a day as well as a WhatsApp link to continue the conversation with the scammer.
3. Non-existent job ad
This scam WhatsApp message provides details for a phoney ‘data job’, which claims to pay up to £30,000 a month for a work from home ‘data optimisation’ role.
Scams such as this attempt to lure you in with an attractive salary and flexible work offer.
4. Task scams
In most cases, random remote job scam messages lead to what’s known as a task scam.
These scams usually start when a job scammer messages you out of the blue about a work opportunity and, if you ask for more details, will ask you to sign up to a dodgy website or app.
After signing up, the scammer will explain that you earn money by completing simple tasks, these can be watching videos, rating products or completing surveys.
You’ll then be asked to pay a fee to upgrade your account after completing a few tasks and you’ll never see your ‘earnings’ from completing the tasks.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/scam-alert-job-scam-texts-to-watch-out-for-aGT6A6D3uzZI