Job scams became a prevalent technique for cybercriminals

Job scams globally have grown exponentially over the past months as they become widespread in the online employment community, targeting financially vulnerable people.

According to reports, these campaigns resemble the pig butchering fraud model, but the difference is that they target a larger audience by preying on job seekers searching for ‘Work from Home’ or flexible work.

Moreover, pig butchering scams commonly target individuals with significant investment assets, while these work scams seek smaller, faster payouts from financially vulnerable targets.

 

Job scams leverage messaging apps and social media to find more targets.

 

Job scams commonly use messaging apps and social media platforms to reach a larger audience that might also include job seekers. Fraudsters who employ such campaigns use enticing remote job opportunities in music streaming, product reviews, and hotel ratings.

The scam begins when threat actors urge victims to register on a fake employment portal with the promise of simple, paid tasks. Once registered, the portal redirects the victim to another domain that contains several “job” tasks, such as product ratings or music reviews. However, these fake domains use technical difficulties schemes that prevent task completion and leave the job seekers with a negative account balance.

To resolve the debt, the scammers advise the victim to make a deposit, implying that doing so will result in a significant earning potential. This strategy has already compromised numerous victims, resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars.

Furthermore, scammers’ group discussions on services such as Telegram and WhatsApp create a perception of legitimacy. In these chats, other fake job seekers, apparently the hackers, share their success stories to further pressure the victims.

This scheme has been highly profitable for the threat actors as some operations generate more than $300,000 in Bitcoin and Ethereum in just a few months. The report’s primary findings include fake websites that imitate reputable firms and maintain high levels of interaction with victims to reinforce dedication to the false job.

Cryptocurrency wallet investigation indicated that scammers rapidly accumulate funds in short time frames. Therefore, users, especially dedicated job seekers, should be more vigilant when receiving unsolicited job offers on any platform and requesting cash to avoid falling victim to these new schemes.