The Federal Trade Commission said there were no task scams in 2020, there were 5,000 in 2023 and then task scams quadrupled by the first half of 2024.

Task scams usually start with a text or WhatsApp message from an unknown sender about a vague job opportunity, according to the FTC. If the recipient responds, they’re told they can receive payouts in exchange for doing tasks related to “app optimization” or “product boosting.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has seen an alarming rise in gamified job scams over the past year. The FTC says that reports of job scams have quadrupled each year since 2022 topping out at 20,000 reports at a cost of $41 million in total during the first six months of the year.

Text message and WhatsApp job scams are rising sharply in the US, particularly a gamified form called ‘task scams,’ per an FTC warning.