It sounds interesting: a lucrative new job that you can do from home. Something to do with product testing. The job description is vague and no professional experience is required. Job seekers are lured in with seemingly harmless digital tasks and systematically robbed of their money through a series of financial demands. How do cybercriminals manage to trick people into falling for their scams? A recent study has examined this phenomenon, known as ‘task scams’, in more detail.

A scam like an online game

“Hello, sorry to bother you. I’m Emily from StepStone Germany. We are currently looking for remote product testers who live in Germany.” A scam that packs a punch begins with a request like this appearing on your smartphone. Emily’s message comes from a number with a Philippine area code and she guarantees daily earnings of 80 to 450 euros. At this point, at the latest, you should realise that this is a case of online fraud. But some job seekers don’t want to miss out on the supposed opportunity and respond to it. That’s exactly what the perpetrators want. They mainly target young victims and therefore use strategies that young adults are familiar with from video games. There, too, you have to complete tasks to advance to the next level. There are group chats and rewards. But how exactly does the scam work? Cybersecurity provider TrendMicro has researched this – communicating directly with fraudsters and analysing malicious websites and the associated

cash flows via cryptocurrencies.

It starts with simple activities such as rating hotels, testing products or ‘liking’ YouTube videos. In some cases, interested parties are invited or added to groups in messenger services. There is also a trainer or mentor there. Both the guidance and the encouragement within the group make it very tempting to keep going. To build trust, participants initially receive small commissions. This reinforces the impression that this is a genuine offer. But then participants have to make increasingly higher deposits via a crypto app in order to receive supposedly more lucrative assignments. When the victims realise what is going on and stop making new payments, they lose the sums they have deposited as well as their supposed wages. There is never an actual payout. This scam is a new variant of ‘job scamming’, i.e. fraud using job advertisements.

Anyone who is asked to open a bank account for a potential new employer is dealing with fraudsters.

Identity theft when looking for a job

Job scamming has been around for a long time. Reputable job platforms such as Stepstone specifically point out this type of fraud and provide tips on how to protect yourself. The list of crimes committed with fake job advertisements is long: identity theft, snowball and pyramid schemes, money scams and money laundering. Fraudsters try to convince job seekers to make bank transfers for them, open accounts or transfer money to them. Sometimes a video identification procedure is also used. This involves holding your identity card clearly visible to the camera during a video call for identification purposes. The first contact is made via SMS, WhatsApp or Telegram. The victims are then directed to perfectly fake websites. The North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office knows how cybercriminals then proceed to obtain sensitive data. ‘This is how it works: in order to allegedly verify their identity using a video identification procedure, applicants are asked to open a bank account,’ reports the LKA. Job seekers are assured that the account is only used for identification purposes and will be deleted immediately afterwards. But according to the LKA NRW, the opposite is true: “What the victims don’t know is that the perpetrators have already initiated the opening of the account in the applicant’s name. When they identify themselves to the bank via the video identification process, the bank opens an account using the contact details previously provided by the perpetrators. This gives them access to this account, which can then be used for further criminal offences. The trap snaps shut.” Depending on how and for what purpose the cybercriminals now use the account, suspicion may arise that the victims themselves have committed crimes. This can lead to claims for damages.

The perpetrators usually get away with it

Lawyer Christian Solmecke from the Cologne-based media law firm Wilde Beuger Solmecke warns: ‘It’s a perfidious scam. The criminals are highly professional and now forge job advertisements almost perfectly.’ He considers it extremely difficult to identify the perpetrators: “When it comes to cybercrime, we must first assume that there is a very large number of unreported cases. ‘ Only a small proportion of crimes in this area are likely to be reported. ’Added to this is the peculiarity that the perpetrators can operate from almost anywhere in the world and are relatively good at covering their tracks. This makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies,” says Solmecke. It is almost impossible for applicants to distinguish the fake job advertisements from the real ones. ‘Spelling mistakes or similar obvious, eye-catching errors cannot be found in the cases known to us,’ warns Solmecke. He therefore advises applicants to be aware of the problem and always trust their own intuition. ‘Of course, applicants should be wary if money has to be transferred or someone wants to transfer money to them.’ The solicitor suspects that inexperienced career starters in particular are quick to fall into this trap.

Behavioural tips

Media solicitor Solmecke advises applicants to always check the company’s website to make sure that the job vacancy actually exists. ‘If there is no information available there, don’t hesitate to check with the company, because companies are of course also extremely interested in finding out about possible cases of fraud,’ emphasises Solmecke. Furthermore, it is unusual for an employer who is interested in an applicant not to arrange a personal interview.

With regard to the new gaming variant of job scamming, Kathrin Bartsch from the Lower Saxony Consumer Advice Centre advises: ‘Despite financial difficulties or when looking for a small job, all recipients should ignore these offers, no matter how difficult that may be.’ And if you have fallen for it and noticed the scam, you should act quickly. Kathrin Bartsch advises immediately blocking any bank cards and ID cards that you have sent to the unknown number by calling 116116.

Maren Menke from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office goes even further: ‘The best thing to do is to get a new email address and telephone number.’ And she warns: ‘There is also a risk to friends on social networks and to all contacts in your own email address book. This is because the perpetrators usually send a computer virus with their emails.’

WL (31.10.2025)