# Job Scam Tracker: what job scams look like right now

> Reported US job-scam losses reached about $501 million in 2024, up roughly fivefold from 2020, per the FTC, with a median individual loss near $1,500 per the BBB. This tracker follows the scale, the dominant scam types, and the red flags behind them, and updates monthly.

Source: https://realjobcheck.com/tracker/  
Updated: 2026-06-07 - Real Job Check Trust and Safety Research Team

---

This is the living companion to our [2026 study](/research/anatomy-of-a-job-scam-2026/): a page we refresh each month so the picture stays current. It tracks how big job scams are, which types are doing the most damage, and the red flags behind them. It scores patterns, not companies, and it is informational, not legal or financial advice.

## The scale right now

Americans reported losing about **$501 million** to job and business-opportunity scams in 2024, up from roughly **$90 million** in 2020, per the [Federal Trade Commission](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/new-ftc-data-show-skyrocketing-consumer-reports-about-game-online-job-scams). Reported losses understate the real total, because most fraud is never reported at all.

<figure class="fig">
  <figcaption>Reported US job-scam losses: 2020 vs 2024</figcaption>
  <p class="fig-sub">Consumer reports to the FTC, in US dollars. About a fivefold rise in four years.</p>
  <div class="bars" role="img" aria-label="Reported US job-scam losses rose from about 90 million dollars in 2020 to about 501 million dollars in 2024.">
    <div class="bar-row">
      <span class="bar-label">2020</span>
      <span class="bar-track"><span class="bar-fill bar-caution" style="--w:18%"></span></span>
      <span class="bar-val">~$90M</span>
    </div>
    <div class="bar-row">
      <span class="bar-label">2024</span>
      <span class="bar-track"><span class="bar-fill bar-risk" style="--w:100%"></span></span>
      <span class="bar-val">~$501M</span>
    </div>
  </div>
  <details class="fig-data">
    <summary>View the data</summary>
    <table>
      <thead><tr><th>Year</th><th>Reported US job and business-opportunity scam losses</th><th>Source</th></tr></thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr><td>2020</td><td>~$90 million</td><td>FTC</td></tr>
        <tr><td>2024</td><td>~$501 million</td><td>FTC</td></tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </details>
  <p class="fig-source">Source: <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/new-ftc-data-show-skyrocketing-consumer-reports-about-game-online-job-scams" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Federal Trade Commission, December 2024</a>. Chart by Real Job Check, free to reuse with attribution.</p>
</figure>

The human-scale figure is the one to keep in mind: the [Better Business Bureau](https://www.bbb.org/all/scamstudies/jobscams/jobscamsfullstudy) puts the **median individual loss** near **$1,500**, real money for someone between paychecks.

The newest FTC data shows where these scams now begin. In 2025, about **one in three** people who reported losing money to a job or business-opportunity scam said it started on social media, per an [FTC data spotlight](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2026/04/reported-losses-scams-social-media-eight-times-higher-2020) from April 2026.

A 2025 [Norton survey](https://us.norton.com/blog/research/job-scam-statistics) of 1,000 US adults (Dynata for Gen Digital, November 2025) adds the human scale: roughly **a third** said they ran into a job scam that year, the exposure skewed young at **44 percent** of Gen Z against **21 percent** of baby boomers, and only **61 percent** felt confident they could spot one.

<figure class="fig">
  <figcaption>Job scams right now: four numbers to know</figcaption>
  <div class="trend">
    <div class="trend-cell"><span class="trend-num">~$501M</span><span class="trend-lab">reported lost to US job scams in 2024 (FTC)</span></div>
    <div class="trend-cell"><span class="trend-num">~$1,500</span><span class="trend-lab">median individual loss (BBB)</span></div>
    <div class="trend-cell"><span class="trend-num">~40%</span><span class="trend-lab">of 2024 job-scam reports were task scams (FTC)</span></div>
    <div class="trend-cell"><span class="trend-num">~1 in 3</span><span class="trend-lab">of 2025 job and business-opportunity scam losses started on social media (FTC)</span></div>
  </div>
  <p class="fig-source">Sources: <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/new-ftc-data-show-skyrocketing-consumer-reports-about-game-online-job-scams" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">FTC</a>, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2026/04/reported-losses-scams-social-media-eight-times-higher-2020" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">FTC data spotlight, 2026</a>, <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/scamstudies/jobscams/jobscamsfullstudy" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">BBB</a>.</p>
</figure>

## The scam types driving the losses

A handful of types do most of the damage, and each works a little differently:

- **[Task scams](/glossary/task-scam/)** are the fastest-growing type. They pay you small amounts for simple online tasks, then ask for a crypto deposit to "unlock" earnings that never arrive. The FTC reports these reached about 40 percent of 2024 job-scam reports.
- **[Advance-fee scams](/glossary/advance-fee-scam/)** ask you to pay first, for training, equipment, or a background check. A real employer never charges you to start.
- **[Fake-check scams](/glossary/fake-check-scam/)** send a check before any work, then ask you to send part of it back. The deposit reverses days later.
- **[Reshipping scams](/glossary/reshipping-scam/)** turn you into an unwitting handler of goods bought with stolen cards.
- **[Money-mule schemes](/glossary/money-mule/)** move stolen funds through your account and leave you holding the legal risk.

## The red flags we check for

Across every type, the same small set of signals does the real work of the fraud. The Real Job Check engine looks for these directly, and so can you. Four are decisive on their own:

1. **Pay to get hired.** Any upfront fee. See [paying before you start](/answers/job-paying-before-you-start-work/).
2. **Money first, then send some back.** The [fake-check](/glossary/fake-check-scam/) move.
3. **Bank or SSN before a signed offer.** See [a job asking for your bank account or SSN](/answers/job-asking-for-bank-account-or-ssn/).
4. **Deposit your own money to earn or withdraw.** The defining [task scam](/glossary/task-scam/) step.

Three more are dangerous in combination: an [offer with no real interview](/answers/job-offer-without-an-interview/), contact pushed to [WhatsApp or Telegram](/answers/recruiter-messaged-me-on-whatsapp-or-telegram/), and a sender or listing that does not match the company (a [lookalike domain](/glossary/lookalike-domain/) or [recruiter impersonation](/glossary/recruiter-impersonation/)). The full method is in [how to spot a job scam](/learn/how-to-spot-a-job-scam/).

## What we are seeing now

As of June 2026, the task scam is still the defining pattern: a friendly first payout to build trust, then a request to deposit your own money. The newest FTC data points to where they now begin: about one in three people who lost money to a job or business-opportunity scam in 2025 said it started on social media. The recruiter still tends to move you onto a messaging app within the first few replies. If an offer reaches you through a feed or a DM, pays you before you have done real work, or hurries you onto WhatsApp, slow down and run a check.

<div class="tracker-soon">
  <span class="soon-tag">First-party signals, coming soon</span>
  <h3>What our own checks are seeing</h3>
  <p>As more people run a check, this section will show privacy-preserving frequencies from real submissions: how often each red flag fires, which contact channels show up most, and the mix of verdicts. We record anonymous tallies only, never the posting text, the employer, a recruiter email, or anything that identifies a person. These numbers light up here once there are enough checks to report them honestly.</p>
</div>

## Method and sourcing

The loss and growth figures are public reporting from the [FTC](https://www.ftc.gov/) and the [BBB](https://www.bbb.org/), each linked at the point of use and dated. The red-flag taxonomy reflects the deterministic checks in the Real Job Check engine: domain age, recruiter email, official careers-page cross-listing, pay realism, and the hard scam-pattern overrides. First-party signals, once published, are aggregate and privacy-preserving. If you cite a figure from this page, a link back is all we ask.