The FBI published a public announcement (PSA) on Tuesday that warns individuals about an increase in fraudulent work of house schemes.
This scam, disguised as legitimate opportunities for work, luring victims with promises of simple tasks such as assessment restaurants or performing so -called “optimization” tasks.
According to the advice, scammers usually occur as renowned companies or recruitment agencies, where they reach potential victims through unsolicited calls or messages.
An important tactic that these scammers use is a complicated payment structure, which often requires victims to make cryptocurrency payments to alleged employers to gain access to extra income or unlock their assumed work. Despite instructions for collecting income on a fake interface, victims notice that they are unable to withdraw money.
Various red flags identify potential scams, including requirements for cryptocurrency payments, simplistic job descriptions and the absence of reference requirements during the recruitment process.
To protect against such schemes, the FBI advised individuals to be careful when encountering unsolicited vacancies, to abandon the sending of money to unknown entities and avoid revealing personal or financial information.
Read more about comparable scams: Growing investment swam, 13,000 domains detected in January 2024
In commentary on the news, Erich Kron, a lawyer for security awareness at Knowbe4, emphasized the importance of trusting the trust of your instincts and being vigilant against suspicious jobs, in particular in the midst of the increasing prevalence of work possibilities at a distance.
“With some employers who ask people to return to the office [after the Covid pandemic]The search for work of work and at home takes place even more often, “Kron explained.” This type of scams uses how normal it is to work from home to mix in with many of the legitimate jobs that are offered. “
Kron also advised individuals to recognize warning signals, such as confusing payment structures or requests for prior payments in exchange for employment.
“People generally have a good sense of intuition about things like this. However, we often talk to ourselves from taking the warnings,” Kron concluded.
As the external work remains to get a grip, individuals are encouraged to remain vigilant and to report fraudulent or suspicious activities to the FBI Internet Crime Combination Combuy (IC3) on www.ic3.gov.