This Week in Scams: Task-Job Traps, Toll Texts & Recovery Cons

Task & "Product Rating" Job Scams: AVASC's Top Concern This Week

AVASC's database logged 210 reports this period tied to fake remote "task" jobs — offers to rate products, apps, or listings for pay — making it our highest-risk cluster of the week (threat score 82). The pattern our members describe matches what the FBI has documented nationally: victims are lured with unsolicited recruiting messages, complete a few simple tasks, and receive small payouts to build trust before hitting a wall.

The FBI's guidance describes the mechanics plainly: over time, victims must deposit larger amounts of money to complete their tasks, and this doesn't initially seem concerning since victims have been able to withdraw money each round — until a new and extremely large deposit requirement comes after victims have already put significant funds in and haven't been able to withdraw it, so they can't fulfill it and their account is frozen. The bureau is blunt about the bottom line: no legitimate job opportunity requires you to deposit your own money to perform tasks.

This isn't a fringe problem. FTC data shows reported losses to job and employment scams exploded from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024, with task scams alone growing roughly 400% in 2024. In April, the FTC issued a consumer alert titled "That job offer text is probably a scam," noting it typically starts with an unsolicited message. AVASC's indicator data lines up exactly: our most common entry point this week was task scams almost always opening on WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, Instagram, or through a fake recruiter profile — channels where the "employer" needs no office, no registration, and no real identity.

The Unpaid-Toll Text Wave Keeps Rolling

AVASC continues to receive reports of look-alike toll-payment pages tied to mass smishing texts, and this matches an active, multi-state pattern. State transportation and consumer-protection agencies have been warning for months: Iowa's DOT reported that fraudulent Iowa DOT-generated text messages tell recipients they have an unpaid toll or registration fee and ask them to click a link to provide personal information as well as credit card numbers. Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Arizona transportation and law-enforcement agencies have issued nearly identical alerts this year.

Federal data confirms this is a growth trend, not an isolated nuisance. The FTC's newest report found reports of government imposter scams were up 40%, thanks in part to messages about overdue tolls — bogus messages that might spoof real toll collection programs like EZ-Pass, SunPass, FasTrak, and TxTag, then threaten late fees or registration suspension if you don't pay right away. Michigan's Attorney General has also flagged a variant using fake court notices: scam messages have included an image claiming to be a "Notice of Civil Infraction Hearing" falsely claiming to be from a district court, warning recipients they must appear in person or pay a penalty, and including a QR code leading to a deceptive website. As officials put it plainly: government agencies will not text residents to demand money — they will mail a notice and offer payment options, and will not ask for or take payment by prepaid gift card, wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or a payment app.

Imposter Scams Remain #1 Nationally — and AVASC Sees the Same Pattern

Government- and business-impersonation calls demanding gift cards or crypto remain one of AVASC's most reported categories, and this tracks with the newest federal numbers. The FTC's 2025 data confirms imposter scams were the #1 scam for the ninth year in a row, with more than 1 million reports and losses increasing nearly 20% to $3.5 billion.

Losses aren't limited to older narratives about gift cards; some of the costliest impersonation scams now start with a fake security alert, often from a bank, convincing people to move money to "protect" it, with losses often limited only by their available funds. Government impersonation specifically is rising fast: people reported losing about $920 million to government impersonators in 2025, up from $866 million and $789 million respectively in 2024. The FTC's new "Never Ever" education campaign underscores a simple test: never will someone from the government say your money isn't safe and tell you to move it to protect it, and never will they threaten to suspend your benefits if you don't pay immediately — only a scammer will.

AI Is Supercharging Romance-Investment ("Pig Butchering") Scams

AVASC's incident data this period includes reports of syndicates using AI to run mass romance-investment conversations, and outside reporting confirms this is a defining 2026 trend. Investigators describe a shift where, in the past, scammers manually managed dozens of conversations at once, but in 2026 criminal syndicates now use agentic AI to automate the grooming process, with AI agents able to maintain thousands of deep, personalized relationships simultaneously.

The core mechanics haven't changed even as the tools have: the U.S. Secret Service describes the pattern as fraudsters gaining the trust of victims, oftentimes via a fictitious romantic relationship, and duping them into making investments into fake cryptocurrency projects. The FBI's own victim-notification program, Operation Level Up, has made real headway: as of March 2026, it had notified 8,935 victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud, 77% of whom were unaware they were being scammed, saving an estimated $562 million. Law enforcement has also stepped up disruption efforts, including a broad international operation led by Dubai Police working with the FBI and China's Ministry of Public Security that resulted in at least 276 arrests, the shutdown of nine scam centers, and the freezing of more than $701 million in crypto. The clearest public warning sign remains the withdrawal stage: victims are eventually "locked out" of their account and forced to pay more money, commonly in fake fees or "taxes," to get any of it back — and then the scammer vanishes along with the money.

Watch Out: Fake "Fund Recovery" Services Re-Targeting Past Victims

One of the more troubling patterns in AVASC's data this week is prior scam victims being contacted again — this time by people posing as recovery specialists or federal investigators. This matches an escalating national problem. The FBI has been explicit: almost all victims, after they lose their money, are contacted by scammers conducting recovery fraud schemes that involve impersonating law enforcement, private companies, or law firms to deceive victims into hiring fake services or paying a fee, claiming they can help recover the lost funds — when in reality it's just another way to take more money.

The scale is significant: the FBI reported more than 10,500 recovery scam complaints and $1.4 billion in losses in 2025. Scammers are also directly impersonating the FBI's own reporting arm; a bureau advisory warned that criminal scammers are impersonating FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center employees, and between December 2023 and February 2025 the FBI received more than 100 reports of IC3 impersonation scams. Why do these cons work so well? As one FTC attorney put it, scammers running these lists know their targets: "They know these people have already been scammed, so they know they're really good targets." The FBI's guidance is unambiguous: the IC3 will not ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will they refer a victim to a company requesting payment for recovering funds.