# Is this remote 'task' or data-entry job a scam? > If a remote job pays you to complete simple online 'tasks' - rating apps, liking videos, 'optimizing' products, boosting orders - and at some point asks you to deposit your own money, usually crypto, to unlock higher earnings or withdraw your balance, it is a task scam. This was the fastest-growing job scam of 2024 by report volume, and the early small payouts are bait. Source: https://realjobcheck.com/answers/is-this-remote-task-or-data-entry-job-a-scam/ Updated: 2026-06-02 - Real Job Check Trust and Safety Research Team --- Task scams are the new face of job fraud, and they are unusually convincing because they pay you - at first. If you are looking at a remote gig that involves simple, repetitive online "tasks" and a chat-app group cheering you on, this answer is for you. ## What a task scam looks like The pitch is flexible, easy money from your phone: rate or review apps, "optimize" products on a store, complete sets of tasks, boost order volume. You are recruited by text or on [WhatsApp or Telegram](/answers/recruiter-messaged-me-on-whatsapp-or-telegram/), added to a busy group chat full of "coworkers" posting their earnings, and pointed to a slick app or website with a dashboard and a growing balance. For the first day or two, it works. You complete tasks, your balance rises, and - tellingly - you can withdraw a small amount of real money. That early payout is the hook. It converts your skepticism into belief. ## Where the trap springs Once you trust it, the structure turns: 1. You hit a **locked higher tier** that promises much bigger pay. 2. To unlock it, or to "release" a withdrawal, or to clear a sudden **negative balance**, the app tells you to **deposit your own money** - almost always cryptocurrency. 3. You deposit, expecting to recover it plus your earnings. The system then demands another, larger deposit. And another. 4. The balance you "earned" can never be withdrawn, because it was never real. The deposits are the scam's entire revenue.
**The line that defines a task scam:** at some point you are asked to put your own money in to get money out. A real job never works this way. The moment a deposit is required to keep earning or to withdraw, stop - the deposit is the loss.
## How big this has become This is not a fringe scheme. The [FTC](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/new-ftc-data-show-skyrocketing-consumer-reports-about-game-online-job-scams) reported that these "gamified" task-job scams grew explosively - reports rose from a few thousand in 2023 to roughly 20,000 in just the first half of 2024 - and that they made up around 40 percent of all job-scam reports for the year. Reported crypto losses to this scam ran to tens of millions of dollars in early 2024 alone. If it feels like everyone is suddenly getting these texts, that is because the volume is real. ## What to do - **Before any deposit:** you have lost nothing. Stop, leave the group chat, and block the contact. Paste the message into the [free checker](/#check) to confirm the pattern. - **After a deposit:** stop immediately. Do not send more to "unlock" or "release" your balance - that is throwing good money after bad. Report to the [FTC](https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/) and the FBI's [IC3](https://www.ic3.gov/), tell your bank or the crypto exchange, and follow the [recovery checklist](/answers/i-already-gave-a-scammer-my-information/). For the underlying mechanics and why this design is so effective, see [task scam](/glossary/task-scam/) in the glossary.