Job & Employment Scam Statistics
Reported losses and complaint volumes for job, employment, and task scams, drawn from FTC Data Spotlights and Consumer Sentinel official reports.
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
Job and employment scams target people seeking work, promising positions that do not exist or using tasks to extract money from victims. The FTC has documented explosive growth in a new variant called 'task scams' — gamified online job frauds in which victims are instructed to complete app-rating or product-boosting tasks and are then pressured to deposit money to unlock fabricated earnings. Losses to job scams tripled between 2020 and 2024.
The scale of under-reporting in this category is significant. Many victims, particularly those who already feel economically vulnerable from job searching, do not report because they feel embarrassed or believe the amount lost is too small to matter. The FTC estimates actual losses are far higher than the $501 million reported, because the data covers only victims who filed a complaint.
Key figures
Losses jumped from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024 — more than a fivefold increase
Reported losses to job scams over five years (US, FTC)
Source: FTC Data Spotlight: Paying to get paid — gamified job scams drive record losses (December 2024) (2024)
More than $220 million in reported job-scam losses in just the first six months of 2024
Losses to job scams in the first half of 2024 alone (US, FTC)
Source: FTC Data Spotlight: Paying to get paid — gamified job scams drive record losses (December 2024) (2024)
Task scam reports rose from zero in 2020 to roughly 5,000 in 2023, then quadrupled to about 20,000 in just the first half of 2024
Growth in task scam reports (US, FTC)
Source: FTC Data Spotlight: Paying to get paid — gamified job scams drive record losses (December 2024) (2024)
Cryptocurrency losses to job scams hit $41 million in the first half of 2024 alone — nearly double all of 2023
Cryptocurrency losses driven by task scams (US, FTC)
Source: FTC Data Spotlight: Paying to get paid — gamified job scams drive record losses (December 2024) (2024)
Key takeaways
- Reported losses to job and employment scams grew more than fivefold from 2020 to 2024, reaching $501 million according to FTC data.
- Task scams — gamified frauds disguised as app-rating or product-boosting work — were the fastest-growing job scam variant, with reports roughly quadrupling in the first half of 2024 alone.
- Task scams primarily use cryptocurrency as the payment mechanism, making funds extremely difficult to recover once sent.
- Scams typically begin with an unsolicited text or WhatsApp message and escalate gradually, requiring increasingly large deposits before the victim can 'withdraw' fabricated earnings.
Frequently asked questions
How do task scams work?
Task scams begin with an unsolicited message offering simple remote work such as app rating, product reviewing, or 'product boosting.' The victim is shown a fake dashboard with growing earnings. When they try to withdraw, they are told to deposit funds to 'unlock' payments. The deposits escalate and are never returned. The FTC documented about 20,000 task scam reports in just the first half of 2024.