How to Spot the Fake Jobs That Launder Money

A scam going around right now promises $200 to $3,000 a day for 15 minutes of work. The messages arrive by text, Instagram DM, Facebook, WhatsApp, email, and sometimes dating apps. They claim to recruit for TEMU, Amazon, or some real company you’ve heard of. What they actually recruit you into is money laundering. The criminals walk away. The legal trouble and the bank chargebacks land on you.

• Anyone job hunting, especially for remote or part-time work

• Students and young adults looking for flexible money

• Anyone going through a tight financial patch, especially if they’ve posted about needing work online

• People on dating apps, where some of these pitches start as flirting that turns into “I know an easy side gig”

• Newcomers to Canada looking for first jobs

• Retirees looking for a little extra income

If it lands in your DMs and you haven’t seen the person in real life, assume it’s a scam until proven otherwise.

Step 1: The first message. They reach out saying they are a recruiter for a real-sounding company. They use logos, job titles, and a professional tone.

Step 2: The too-good offer. They promise $200 to $3,000 a day for simple work: writing product reviews, customer service, or “payment processing”. Fifteen to thirty minutes a day.

Step 3: The trust-building. They mention free training, formal onboarding, same-day pay. Sometimes they send fake job descriptions on official-looking letterhead.

Step 4: The task. Once you agree, your actual job becomes one of these:

• Someone sends money into your bank account, you withdraw it and forward most of it to a crypto wallet or another account

• You let them use your bank account or credit card to “process payments”

• You buy gift cards and send them the codes

• You receive packages and forward them somewhere else

Every one of these is moving stolen money. The real victim’s bank will eventually notice the fraud and claw the money back, but by then you’ve already forwarded it. You owe your bank the difference.

• Any job that contacts you first, especially through social media or a dating app

• Pay that feels too high for the work described

• An interview that happens entirely over text or Telegram, no video call

• A “recruiter” who can’t name the exact team, manager, or office you’d be working in

• They want to pay you through your bank or send you money to forward

• They ask you to buy gift cards or cryptocurrency “for the company”

• Urgency: “the position closes tomorrow, can you start tonight?”

• Real companies don’t recruit through Instagram DMs. TEMU, Amazon, and others post openings on their own career pages.

• If you didn’t apply, be suspicious. Unsolicited job offers are how this scam starts.

• Verify the recruiter on the company’s real site. If someone claims to be from Amazon, go to amazon.jobs directly and search for the role and recruiter. If they’re real, they’ll be listed.

• Never let anyone use your bank account, credit card, or identity to move money. That’s the legal trap. Even if you didn’t know it was stolen, you can still be charged.

• If you already received money, do not touch it. Call your bank, tell them what happened, and let them handle the reversal. Moving the money makes the problem worse.

• Report the scam. In Canada, call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501. In the US, report to the FBI’s IC3.

• Learn the 4-step check. Sender, language, links, verify. Our free course How Not to Get Phished walks through it in plain language. Our related post on Fake Resume Emails covers the other side of the same scam family.

If you’ve already done a task or two for one of these “jobs” and are panicking, talk to your bank immediately. Voluntarily reporting what happened puts you in a much better position than getting caught later.

The tell here is simple: real jobs don’t pay you to move other people’s money. If the work is “we send you money, you send most of it somewhere else”, it’s always laundering. The scammer disappears. You’re left holding the bank chargeback and sometimes a police call.

When in doubt, take a screenshot, don’t respond, and ask Dave or a trusted friend before you reply.

If you know a student or young adult who’s job-hunting, forward this to them. This scam is hitting them hard, and most of them have never heard of it.