The Job Pays You to Click. Then It Asks You to Deposit Money.
An unexpected job text can lead to a small payout, a growing balance on a screen, and a demand for your own money.
An unexpected text offers paid work you can do on your phone. The tasks sound simple. Rate a product. Like a video. After a few clicks, the site shows money in your account. You might even get a small payment. Then a message says you have to make a deposit before you can finish the next set of tasks or withdraw what you’ve earned.
The Federal Trade Commission calls this a task scam. The sequence comes from consumer reports and FTC warnings. The deposit request is the clearest point to stop, but there are earlier moments when you can check whether the job exists. consumer.ftc.gov
Check the employer before you take the first task
A message may name a company you recognize or say a recruiter found your résumé. If it’s a company you’d consider working for, open its website yourself and look for the role on its careers page. If you can’t find it, contact the employer through a phone number or email address you found independently. Ask whether the position exists and whether the person who contacted you represents the company.
Use a separate search even if the sender has given you a link that looks official. A logo or a familiar company name tells you what the sender wants you to see. It gives you little to go on about who sent the message. The same applies if they send you a screenshot of an employee badge or move the conversation to a messaging app.
If you did apply for a job recently, pull up your application confirmation and check the title. A text about an unrelated job can arrive while you’re waiting to hear from several employers. Start with the contact details attached to the application you actually submitted.
Treat a small payment as one payment
The FTC says some task scams send a small payment early on. That makes the next instruction easier to accept. If the money arrived in your account, you have evidence that someone sent you that amount. The larger balance on the task site is a separate matter. consumer.ftc.gov
The site may add a commission every time you finish a task. It can look like a record of paid work, especially if the number goes up each time you click. Before you spend another evening on it, ask what you can verify outside the site. Who agreed to pay you? What were the terms? Can you get in touch with the company without going through the person who recruited you?
If the answer always leads back to the same chat or website, pause there. You don’t need to complete another task to find out whether the company is real.
Stop when the job asks you to put in your own money
The request can come just as you’re trying to withdraw what the screen says you earned. You may be told to add money to clear a shortfall or finish a batch of tasks. The person sending instructions may say you’ll get the deposit back along with your earnings. The FTC warns that task scammers often ask for payment in cryptocurrency. Its advice is simple: never pay someone to get paid or to get a job. consumer.ftc.gov
At that point, set the displayed balance aside. The decision in front of you is whether to send money from your own account. Leave it there. If the recruiter gives you a deadline or says you’ll lose the work you’ve already done, you can stop responding without waiting for their permission.
If you want to check whether a legitimate company’s name was used, go back to the company contact you found independently. Keep the conversation about the job itself. There’s no need to share banking details, passwords, or a code sent to your phone to ask whether a recruiter works there.
Keep the records if you already paid
Save the original text, the account name the sender used, and any payment receipt you have. If you can still see the task page, take a screenshot of the deposit request and the address of the site. Keep copies where you can find them without signing back in. A record of what you sent and when will help you explain what happened.
Contact the bank, card issuer, or payment service you used through its official app or website. Describe the transaction and ask what options are available for that payment method. You can also report the scam through the FTC’s reporting site. The person who asked for the deposit may keep messaging. You can keep the records and end the conversation. consumer.ftc.gov
If another job offer lands in your messages while you’re still looking, open the list of places where you applied before opening the link. A job title, an employer’s official contact, and a copy of your application give you somewhere to start.
