Job offers by text, and jobs that ask you to pay

The text, and the reply

The FTC's April 2026 alert "That job offer text is probably a scam" describes fake recruiters who say they represent real companies and offer remote work, such as "online assessor." The FTC says "They'll often mention pay (sometimes daily or weekly rates) without any details on the actual job." Instead of a link, they ask you to reply YES or INTERESTED. Once you reply, they invent reasons for you to send money: a check to deposit and partly send back, or online tasks that eventually require a deposit of your own.

Fake job offers were among the FTC's most reported text scams of 2024.

Task scams: "earnings" you can't withdraw

The FTC's August 2025 alert on task scams explains the pattern. An unexpected message offers easy money for simple online tasks, sometimes called "optimization" or "product boosting." You do the tasks in an app and watch your "earnings" grow. You may even be paid a small amount, usually $5 to $20, to build trust. Then you're told to deposit your own money, often in cryptocurrency, to unlock more tasks or to withdraw what you've earned. The earnings were never real, and the deposit is gone. As the FTC puts it, there aren't any commissions and only the scammers make money.

The older patterns

The FTC's guide to job scams covers several more:

• Work-from-home kits: you pay for training, certification or a starter kit that leads nowhere.
• Reshipping: you receive packages and forward them, sometimes overseas. The goods were often bought with stolen credit cards. The FTC says reshipping is never a real job.
• Fake checks: your "employer" sends a check, asks you to deposit it and send part of the money back. The check bounces, and the bank wants the full amount from you.
• Mystery shopping: the FTC says honest mystery-shopping companies don't charge for certifications, job directories or job guarantees.

What the numbers show

In the FBI's 2025 IC3 Annual Report, people aged 60 and over filed 2,853 employment-scam complaints, up from 1,079 in 2023, and reported $78.7 million in losses. These count only complaints filed with the FBI, and only those where the person gave an age, which the FBI's form doesn't require.

The rule that catches most of them

From the FTC: never pay to get a job, and never pay to get paid. A real employer pays you; you don't pay them. Three kinds don't ask you to pay up front, so the rule won't catch them: reshipping jobs, jobs that send you a check to deposit and pass on, and jobs that ask you to transfer money for them. The FTC is plain about the first: "Reshipping goods is never a real job." A check that comes with instructions to send some of the money on is a fake-check scam. And on the third, the FTC says: "Don’t accept a job that asks you to transfer money." You may be helping a scammer move stolen money, it says, and "You could even get into legal trouble for helping a scammer move stolen money." A few more checks:

1. Ignore generic and unexpected texts, WhatsApp or Telegram messages about jobs. The FTC says real employers will never contact you that way.
2. Search the company's name with "scam," "review" or "complaint."
3. Don't rely on a check that has "cleared." The FTC warns that a fake check can seem to clear and still bounce later.
4. Start a job search with official sources. For federal jobs, that's USAJOBS.
5. Talk to someone you trust before you accept an offer.

If you paid or deposited a check

If a job has you transferring money for someone, the FTC's advice is to "stop transferring money" and tell your bank, the wire transfer service or any gift card companies involved. Contact the company you used to send the money right away, report the fraud, and ask for it back; if you deposited a check, tell your bank. Report the job scam at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general. See what to do if you paid.

Related patterns

• Investment offers, crypto and “guaranteed” returnsA friendly expert, a platform that shows big gains, and no way out.
• Anyone asking you to pay with gift cardsBuy cards, scratch the back, read the numbers.
• “Your account is locked” and other account warningsA problem with your account, and a link to sign in and fix it.