Employment scams have surged in Alabama, Better Business Bureau warns

A Better Business Bureau report warns that employment-based scams saw a substantial increase last year, including in Alabama.

The schemes, in which scammers promise individuals employment before requesting funds to receive the money they supposedly earned, were reported more than twice as often through the BBB Scam Tracker last year as in 2024.

In 2025, 23,234 employment-based scams were reported to the scam tracker, compared to 11,748 in 2024. More than half of employment-based scams reported to the BBB were sent via text message.

Median losses from employment-based scams have declined, with individuals who fell victim to schemes losing an average of $2,000 in 2023, compared to averages of $1,500 in 2024 and $1,000 last year.

However, BBB Scam Tracker data also indicated significantly higher average losses for victims of “task-based” scams, in which targets are offered jobs related to “app optimization” or “product boosting” and asked to leave ratings or reviews for products or websites.

The organization’s 2026 employment scam report highlighted the increased prominence of task-based scams last year, with median losses for victims of $2,300.

While scammers may send targets initial deposits in exchange for completing tasks, they subsequently request deposits from the target to unlock more tasks, or to gain access to their falsely promised earnings.

“If money is handed over, often in the form of cryptocurrency, the scammer disappears or creates another excuse why their target needs to give more money, only giving up the ruse once the person realizes they’ve been scammed,” BBB wrote. “In some cases, consumers lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars.”

BBB Central and South Alabama cited a report filed last November by an Anniston resident in which scammers posed as a media company looking to increase their content’s exposure, and promised to pay the target to watch and like YouTube videos.

The individual initially received $20 for engaging with the posts they were sent. They were subsequently promised additional money that was supposedly earned for engaging with the videos, before being tasked with paying online vendors.

The scammers claimed they would be reimbursed for the payments and receive a promised 30 percent commission and $1,000 signing bonus.

In the end, the individual lost $100 to the scheme, with scammers requesting increasingly large deposits they falsely claimed would allow the target to retrieve the promised funds. 

Evey Owen, vice president of BBB Central and South Alabama, emphasized in a statement released by the organization last week that task-based scams account for much of the uptick in fraudulent employment messages seen in Alabama and across the nation.

“We’re seeing employment scams hit Alabamians more often than ever, and task-based scams are driving a lot of that,” Owen stated. “Victims think they’re earning money, when really they’re being set up to pay into a scam. If a job offers to hire you with no interview and requires you to pay in order to get paid, that’s your sign to walk away.”

In a Monday interview, Owen told APR that BBB’s Scam Tracker saw a significant increase in employment-based scam reports in Alabama last year, with 393 reports filed in 2025 alone, compared to only 359 reports in 2023 and 2024 combined.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people about this, specifically these employment schemes, recently, and everybody keeps saying, ‘You know, I just can’t believe somebody would send their money in order to get a paycheck,’” Owen said.

“It sounds simple, but it’s not,” she continued. “Of course, scammers are smart, and really, they’re criminals, and they disguise it in ways that you don’t automatically have the warning bells that go off in your head.”

Owen highlighted that scammers often send checks to individuals, claiming the money is for office equipment, and ask for part of the money to be returned.

“So, you get a check in the mail overnighted, you know, for $5,000,” she explained. “They’ll say, ‘Okay, well, you know, $3,000 of that is for you. We actually overpaid you, so I need you to send $2,000 back to us.’”

“Of course, that check was not real,” Owen added. “It’s not from a real business. And by the time that the bank realizes that, you’ve already sent the $2,000 back to them.”

Owen urged individuals who have lost money through employment-based schemes to immediately contact their bank or financial institution, report the scam and close their card or account.

“If the charge hasn’t gone through, hopefully they can get that money back, which is the best-case scenario,” she said, adding that impacted individuals should also notify their local police department and file a report through the BBB Scam Tracker.

The BBB Central and South Alabama vice president also stressed that if an individual believes they’ve received a scam call, text or email, it’s best not to respond, and immediately mark the correspondence as spam.

“As much as we all enjoy messing with them, stringing them along sometimes, it’s best not to engage,” she said. “If you reply back in any form, ‘No,’ ‘Stop,’ you know, ‘Press 9,’ whatever, then that lets the person know, the scammer know, that there’s a person on the other end of that phone number, and they will continue to target it.”

When asked to describe resources available to Alabamians looking to protect themselves from employment-based scams, Owens highlighted BBB’s Scam Survival Toolkit and AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, which, alongside the BBB Scam Tracker, provides data on prominent scams and how to identify them.

The BBB official ultimately described the increased prevalence of employment-based scams as taking advantage of individuals desperate for work, emphasizing the need to understand scammers’ tactics to avoid becoming a victim.

“It’s hard when, you know, with the economy like it is, the job market like it is, and so for scammers to be targeting us, it just feels like, you know, in a vulnerable spot. It’s very frustrating,” Owen said. “But awareness is one of the best things that you can do to arm yourself, and to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.”