{"id":48752,"date":"2023-08-07T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T16:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=48752"},"modified":"2023-08-07T12:42:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T16:42:10","slug":"work-proposal-schemes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/work-proposal-schemes\/48752\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid work-from-home scams"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are lots of websites with tempting offers of quick and easy money working from home. But in reality, they\u2019re likely to be from scammers looking to get gullible users to work for them for free and advertise their \u201cbusiness.\u201d This post demonstrates the operation principle of several such schemes and gives tips on how to avoid falling victim to them.<\/p>\n

Many scams in one<\/h2>\n

Who wouldn\u2019t want to earn money for doing regular online stuff: taking surveys, watching videos, playing games and other simple tasks? That\u2019s how scammers lure victims to one of the sites.<\/p>\n

\"Home<\/a>

Home page of a scam website offering part-time work doing regular online activities<\/p><\/div>\n

The home page of the \u201cplatform\u201d is overflowing with offers of easy-earning jobs. Scammers promise new recruits a whopping US$200 a day. Plus a US$25 signing-up bonus!<\/p>\n

Of course, there are numerous reviews from grateful \u201cusers\u201d who have already become rich. But if you bother to read them, you\u2019ll spot a lot of grammatical mistakes.<\/p>\n

\"Reviews<\/a>

Reviews from \u201cusers\u201d who supposedly struck gold<\/p><\/div>\n

To earn money on the \u201cplatform\u201d, you are asked to complete various tasks, such as testing apps, playing games, sharing a link to the site with friends<\/strong>, and the like.<\/p>\n

\"Tasks<\/a>

Tasks you get paid for<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, all these \u201ctasks\u201d are just links to other scam resources. By visiting them, users create traffic to cybercriminals\u2019 sites. This improves their position in search results. And also, cybercriminals may have their own footfall KPIs (key performance indicators).<\/p>\n

When the victim tries to get their \u201cmoney\u201d (the home page promises that this can be done through popular services like Cash App, Venmo, PayPal and others), they discover that they must first earn at least US$200.<\/p>\n

\"Message<\/a>

Message saying you need to earn US$200 to withdraw funds<\/p><\/div>\n

Sure, you won\u2019t see any payout even if you do \u201cearn\u201d 200 bucks.<\/p>\n

Nor can it be ruled out that the scammers\u2019 domain won\u2019t simply be blocked before user even try \u2014 such sites have very short lifespan. After getting blocked, the scammers will get another domain and launch the whole scheme again with new victims.<\/p>\n

The scam itself is quite international. Besides English, the cybercriminals\u2019 website is available in nine other languages. Although these versions look less professional.<\/p>\n

Share it with the whole world<\/h2>\n

Now let\u2019s talk about a similar site with a more primitive design, but with a different mechanism for making money from naive users.<\/p>\n

The victims are offered two ways to earn. The first is to share the link and invite \u201creferrals\u201d to the website: you get US$1 for every 100 people. What\u2019s more, the site supposedly lets you withdraw funds after accumulating just US$20. To earn this amount through inviting referrals, you need to attract 1500 users to the site (you get US$5 for signing-up).<\/p>\n

\"Home<\/a>

Home page of a site that pays you to share its link<\/p><\/div>\n

Sounds hard, but things aren\u2019t all that bad, you have a chance to earn US$50 right away. But for this you\u2019ll have to play the scammers\u2019 game \u2014 by endlessly refreshing the page so that the two images match. They won\u2019t of course.<\/p>\n

\"Scammers'<\/a>

Scammers\u2019 game<\/p><\/div>\n

When the victim goes to the site, they are immediately asked for permission to display browser notifications. Through these, the cybercriminals distribute ads for various other scams or relatively legit adult sites. That\u2019s the main objective: to lure as many victims as possible who will give this permission.<\/p>\n

And the image-matching game helps the scammers boost traffic to their own site and improve its search visibility.<\/p>\n

How to avoid falling victim?<\/h2>\n

To avoid falling for online job scams:<\/p>\n