Extra income scam offers money in exchange for likes – 12/13/2023 – Market

The Civil Police are investigating the so-called “extra income scam”, in which criminals offer money to anyone who agrees to follow, comment and like profiles of strangers. A woman in São Gonçalo, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, filed a complaint at the police station, in which she said that her loss was R$2,400.

According to the statement, she received a message on WhatsApp from a woman who identified herself as a human resources assistant for a company that provides evaluation and likes services. The proposal was for online work and the remuneration could reach R$ 1,448.

In the message, the supposed recruiter asked: “Would you like to try?” And the victim accepted.

She then received instructions to complete several steps, such as watching films and increasing page engagement on social media through likes, comments and sharing content.

Initially, the victim received R$500, but in the following stages she was instructed to invest amounts on a cryptocurrency website in order to continue receiving and with the promise that the money would return with interest.

She said that, after four investments with no return, she realized she had fallen for a scam. According to her report, the amounts deposited were blocked.

The extra income scam is classified as embezzlement and is provided for in article 171 of the Penal Code, with the possibility of one to three years in prison.

Also called the “small task scam”, the practice consists of offering easy money in exchange for simple tasks and has been increasingly used to deceive victims on social media.

Scammers take advantage of so-called click farms’ in which users are paid to boost profiles on the internet. In this case, specialized companies sell “engagement” packages to customers, who can acquire thousands of followers on social networks instantly, as well as combos with likes, comments and even video views.

On the other side, there are sites that pay workers from R$0.001 to R$0.05 to perform each interaction, designated as a task.

This type of artificial behavior violates the terms of use of networks such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. When detected, profiles are often suspended or blocked, which prevents employees from receiving accumulated earnings.

Despite this, there is no law in the country that prohibits the sale of boosters along the lines of click farms.