Bad news, everyone! It’s scam season again.
This time, it’s the WhatsApp job scam. And just to get it out there, nobody is offering real jobs, full- or part-time, via unsolicited DMs on WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS or any other messaging platform. It is not a real job offer. Ever.
How the WhatsApp Recruiting Scam Works
The WhatsApp part-time job scam is similar to pig butchering. The scammer makes an offer – in this case, a lucrative part-time job – and slowly strings the victim along. In most cases, the “job” is viewing online products, adding them to carts, watching videos or leaving reviews.
Here’s an example of a solicitation for one of these scam jobs sent via SMS. As you can tell, I’m quite impressed by the fact it came from the highly reputable Glassdoor (USA). (For some reason, I didn’t get a response.)
In most cases, the victim completes a few “assignments,” and gets paid tiny amounts of cryptocurrency (often USDT). This is meant to build trust before the real scam kicks in.
At this point, the victim is offered a “VIP” gig, with promises of a hefty payday. The only catch: They have to put up cash up front. Obviously, once this money is sent, it – and the scammer – are gone.
Is This Unsolicited Job Offer Real?
If someone is offering you unsolicited part-time work on WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS, it is not real. They are trying to scam you. This is true whether they’re claiming to be from big companies, mid-sized companies (like us, which is something they’re trying right now, which is super fun) or weird localization errors, like Glassdoor (USA).
Nobody is giving out free money in chats to strangers. It is fake. If you play along, you will get your money taken from you.
Here are some tips to tell if it’s a scam:
- You never applied for the job, or anything similar.
- You’ve never heard of the sender, or it’s from a Gmail, Hotmail, Yandex or similar email service.
- They put on the hard sell. (The above scam job, for instance, “can bring a good income to the family.”)
- It’s a “wrong number.” (This isn’t necessarily indicative of the job scam, but assume that every message you get “intended” for someone else is a scam.)
- They offer to “pay” in crypto. Reputable companies don’t do this, or at least let you choose to receive compensation in real – sorry, fiat – currency.
What You Can Do About It
If you get a message offering easy part-time work for lucrative compensation, the simple option is to delete it and move on. It is fake, and you will not receive lucrative compensation for easy part-time work.
However, if you’re feeling frisky, you can:
- Report the scam to the FTC and FBI.
- Let the company whose name is being used know. They can’t do much about it (apart from getting irritated and writing blog posts, which … yeah). But it’s good for them to be in the loop.
If you started down the path one one of these part-time job scammers, do not continue, and never, ever send them money. You will lose it.
(There’s nothing to be ashamed of here, by the way. These types of online scams are deployed at scale, and they’re specifically designed to prey on human vulnerabilities. If you got sucked in, you can walk away. It’s all good. Mistakes happen, and what counts is how you respond to them.)
tl;dr: WhatsApp Job Offers Are Fake
If a stranger is offering you easy money via WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS or any other channel, they are lying to you. They will try to string you along with simple jobs, then ask for you to pay them in advance of a big return. If you do that, they will keep your money and ghost you.
These scammers use real companies’ names and logos to try to gain credibility in your eyes. The companies have nothing to do with it, and can’t really do much about it. It’s not their fault. It’s the scammers’. Do your part by knowing the signs of an online scam and not playing their games.
