Job Scam Reports Doubled in 2025, BBB Warns

Job hunters handed over thousands of dollars to scammers in 2025, and the tactic that fooled them looked nothing like a traditional job posting. The Better Business Bureau's International Investigations Initiative released a study in late May 2026 showing employment scam reports doubled from 2024 to 2025, and the driver was a gamified fraud most people had never heard of six months earlier.

Nearly 50,000 people reported to BBB Scam Tracker after falling victim to an employment scam over the last three years. But the shape of the threat changed fast. The BBB received hundreds of reports involving task-based scams where fraudsters impersonated popular companies, and those reports spiked in ways older job scams never did.

What the BBB study found in late May 2026

The study, titled "Employment scams soar, 'video boosters' left unpaid, and education needs are paramount," landed during a flood of state attorney general warnings. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson warned on May 1, 2026, of an increase in employment scams, noting that criminals are impersonating recruiters, conducting fraudulent interviews, and targeting job seekers to steal their money or personal information.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday followed with a June 1 alert specifically aimed at students and graduates hunting for summer work. The timing wasn't random. The unemployment rate sits at 4.3%, and scammers know when people are most vulnerable.

The BBB study isolated several key findings. Over 600 reports to BBB about employment scams were task-based. That number sounds modest until you remember the FTC estimates only 4.8% of victims of mass-market fraud report it to the BBB or government entity. Multiply 600 by twenty, and you're looking at potentially 12,000 victims of task scams alone in the past year.

Job scams conducted over text message exploded in 2025, making up half of all reports. That's not an incremental shift. Text became the dominant vector in a single year.

How the task scam actually works

The new tactic involves task-based scams, such as paying to "like" online videos. Job titles include "optimization specialist, app optimization or product boosting". Victims are promised big payouts for very little work and might be asked to like, follow or subscribe to YouTube videos or other platforms.

Here's the sequence. You get a text from someone claiming to represent a real company. They offer remote work. No interview. Pay starts immediately. You're directed to an app or online platform that looks polished. An app designed to look like a game will show an ever-increasing sum of supposed earnings with the completion of each task or set of tasks.

To build trust, the scammer may actually pay you. The FTC noted in an earlier August 2025 alert on task scams that they might pay you a little, usually $5 to $20, to try to gain your trust. You see the money hit your account. The app shows you've earned more. It feels real.

Then comes the turn. After victims complete the task, the scammers say there was an error in payment and ask the victim for money to unlock new tasks to make more money. Or they say you need to deposit funds to "complete the next set of tasks and to get the supposed earnings out". The deposit request is almost always cryptocurrency.

Once you send it, your money is gone. The app vanishes, or the scammer stops responding. The earnings you saw were never real.

The FTC flagged this tactic in April and again in August 2025

The BBB study confirms what the FTC started warning about more than a year ago. In an April 30, 2026 consumer alert, the FTC said there's "a new text scam" involving fake recruiters offering fake jobs, stealing real money.

The FTC spelled out a specific twist. Instead of asking you to click a link, they'll ask you to reply with "YES" or "INTERESTED". That reply confirms your number is active and that you're engaged. From there, they'll come up with reasons you'll need to send money.

The agency also published an August 2025 explainer on task scams that included hard numbers. Reported losses to job scams increased more than threefold from 2020 to 2023 and, in just the first half of 2024, topped $220 million. About 20,000 people reported these scams in the first half of the year, compared to about 5,000 in all of 2023.

Cryptocurrency dominates the payment method. About $41 million in cryptocurrency losses to job scams were reported in the first half of 2024, compared to about $21 million in all of 2023.

What Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania officials said in May and June

A new study by the Wisconsin Better Business Bureau shows scammers are using new tactics to target job hunters, revealing nearly 50,000 reports of job scams. Lisa Schiller from the Wisconsin BBB told a Green Bay television station on June 3 that employment scams have been in the organization's top three most reported scams for several years, but the task-based tactic is new.

North Carolina's alert came earlier. Attorney General Jeff Jackson said, "If a job offer seems too good to be true or a recruiter is pressuring you to act fast, take the time to do your research before moving forward". The state's warning emphasized that victims are then taken through what appears to be a real hiring process, including interviews, paperwork, and offer letters.

Pennsylvania's Attorney General Dave Sunday warned on June 1 that in some scams, job postings may ask that you receive packages at your home to repackage and reship to another address. The products in this scam are often high-priced goods, like name-brand electronics, bought using stolen credit cards. When you try to get paid, you'll often find that the phone number has been disconnected and the website no longer exists.

The money mule angle and why reshipping jobs are dangerous

Task scams aren't the only employment fraud surging. Reshipping schemes turn victims into what law enforcement calls money mules. The FBI defines money mules as people who help launder proceeds derived from online scams and frauds or crimes like human trafficking and drug trafficking.

Some money mules know they are supporting criminal enterprises; others are unaware that they are helping criminals profit. If you're repackaging stolen goods bought with someone else's credit card and shipping them overseas, you're not just a scam victim. You could even get into legal trouble for helping a scammer move stolen money.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, known as IC3, tracks these schemes. You can report money mule job scams to IC3 directly.

How much victims are losing and why median losses matter

The BBB study found that median losses shrunk since 2023 but remain high at $1,000. That's per victim. Multiply that by tens of thousands of reports, and you're looking at losses in the tens of millions from this single scam variant.

The FTC's data for the last quarter of 2025 paints a broader picture. There were more than 25,000 reports of business and job opportunity scams during the last quarter of 2025 alone. Those scams resulted in total losses of more than $150 million, with the median victim losing about $2,000.

Median loss tells you what the typical victim lost, not the average. That $2,000 figure means half of victims lost more, half lost less. It's a better measure of real-world impact than an average, which gets skewed by the small number of people who lose five or six figures.

Red flags that appear in nearly every report

The BBB study listed warning signs that showed up again and again. Unprompted job offers, jobs offered without an interview, too-good-to-be-true salaries, high-pressure offers to take a job immediately. Also: interviewers refuse to turn on camera, payment to like or subscribe to videos online, charges or taxes to withdraw money already earned, upfront costs to begin work.

Legitimate employers don't contact strangers via WhatsApp or Telegram to offer jobs. The FTC has said this repeatedly. Real employers will never contact you that way. If the first contact is a text or a messaging app, it's almost certainly not real.

Another tell: vague job descriptions. The fake recruiters claim to be with legit companies you might know and say they're hiring for jobs you can do from home like "online assessor" or just simply a "remote position". No details about the actual work. Just the pay rate and the promise it's easy.

And never pay to get a job. Never pay to get paid or get a job. That's a sure sign of a scam.

What to do right now if you're job hunting

Start with trusted platforms. If a company reaches out to you, attempt to find a posting for the job on the company's official website. Don't click a link in a text. Type the company name into your browser yourself.

Check the email domain. Recruiters using free email services such as Gmail instead of company email addresses is a red flag. Real corporate recruiters use company email.

If the hiring process moves absurdly fast, stop. Hiring processes that move unusually fast and interviews conducted solely through email or messaging apps are both warning signs.

Never send money for background checks, equipment, or training. Never send money for "training," "equipment," or "background checks" as part of a job application process. Some legitimate employers do background checks, but it's unusual for companies to demand immediate upfront payment. In many legitimate cases, fees are deducted from a future paycheck rather than paid directly by applicants.

If someone sends you a check and asks you to send part of the money back, it's a fake check scam. The check will bounce. You'll owe the bank. Don't do it.

Where to report and why reporting matters

If you've been targeted or lost money, report it. The FTC wants to hear from you at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center takes reports at IC3.gov.

State attorneys general also track these scams. In North Carolina, you can file a complaint at ncdoj.gov/complaint or call 1-877-5-NO-SCAM. Pennsylvania residents can file complaints online, by emailing consumers@attorneygeneral.gov, or by calling 1-800-441-2555.

Reporting does two things. It helps law enforcement spot patterns and shut down operations. And it feeds the public data that organizations like the FTC and BBB use to warn others. The number of victims is likely much higher, because only 4.8% of victims of mass-market fraud report it to the BBB or government entity.

Why this is happening now and what changed in 2025

The labor market matters. U.S. employers laid off more than 1.17 million workers in 2025, the most since the 2020 pandemic. When unemployment ticks up, scammers follow. Scammers often prey on people who are under financial pressure and eager to secure work quickly.

Text message as a scam vector also became cheaper and more effective. Scammers can send thousands of texts at scale. Reply rates are higher than email. And the messages bypass spam filters that catch phishing emails.

Cryptocurrency makes it easier for scammers to disappear. Once you send crypto, there's no bank to reverse the transaction. No chargeback. Crypto is the currency of choice for these scams.

The gamification element is new. Task scams look and feel like gig-economy apps people already use. The interface is familiar. The promise of earning money per task mirrors how DoorDash or Uber shows earnings. That familiarity lowers people's defenses.

The other scam variants still circulating in June 2026

Task scams dominate the current wave, but older tactics are still working. The FTC's April 2026 alert mentioned two others. They might say they have a check you need to deposit, and then ask you to send them money back. Don't do this; it's a fake check scam.

Another common tactic involves fake employers requesting money for a background check before hiring. Scammers may direct applicants to fraudulent websites where they're asked to submit payment and personal information.

Identity theft scams are also rising. Some scams aren't after your money, they're after your identity. Once applicants accept, they're asked to provide sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, bank account details and copies of identification documents. That information can then be used to commit fraud, open accounts in the victim's name or gain access to existing financial accounts.

Because legitimate employers also request similar documents during the hiring process, these scams can be especially difficult to spot. The timing matters. Real employers ask for your Social Security number after you've been hired, during onboarding. Scammers ask for it during the application or right after the offer.

One case study from Pennsylvania that shows how close it gets

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's June 1 alert included an example. The "employer" did the interview over email and text because the "employer" was allegedly hard of hearing. This Pennsylvanian got the job and the "employer" sent her a check that she was supposed to send partial funds back to her "employer".

She discussed it with her friend and realized something was off. Upon researching the company, she found the company is real. The person she was supposed to be in contact with was real, but she was speaking with a scammer who had used this company and its employees in their scam.

That's the nightmare version. The company exists. The recruiter's name is real. But you're talking to an imposter who spoofed everything. The only way she caught it was talking to someone outside the situation.

Verified against Better Business Bureau May 2026 employment scam study, FTC consumer alerts from April and August 2025, and May/June 2026 warnings from North Carolina and Pennsylvania Attorneys General. Last updated: June 12, 2026. Reviewed and published by the RecentScam Editorial Team on 2026-06-12.