Scammers are tricking victims into making cryptocurrency payments by offering them fake remote jobs, the FBI has warned.
According to the warning, scammers make cold calls and emails, offering people fake jobs that often sound too good to be true. These jobs are remote and can be done from home, typically involving simple tasks like rating restaurants or requiring employees to “optimize” a service by repeatedly clicking a button.
Scammers will pretend to be a well-known recruitment agency or pretend to be one that doesn't exist. The actual scam occurs when the victim is supposed to be paid. They are invited to join a platform where they can monitor and track their salary, but to “unlock” the service, they must make a small payment in cryptocurrency. Once they make the payment, the money is gone forever.
Fake platforms
To make matters worse, the platform appears to be “working” on the surface. Victims can “track” their payments and even see how they make money. However, they will never be able to withdraw anything as it is all just a ruse and the money is not real.
To protect themselves, the FBI warns citizens to be wary of unsolicited job posting messages and to avoid clicking on links, downloading files, or opening attachments in these messages.
“Never send money to a purported employer,” the FBI warns, adding that users should not pay for services that claim to be able to recover lost funds in cryptocurrency.
And finally, people should never send financial or personally identifiable information to people making unsolicited job offers, but should report it to the FBI IC3.
Fake jobs are nothing new in the world of cybercrime. In fact, they were popularized over the years by Lazarus Group, an infamous North Korean state-sponsored threat actor.
