Please be aware of the following:
- Appbot only operates under https://appbot.co.
- We never approach people on Whatsapp or similar, offering work.
- All roles offered by Appbot are advertised at https://appbot.co/jobs, until the role is filled and candidates notified.
If you have received an offer of employment from a company that uses any domain other than https://appbot.co, please contact us so that we may take action to protect our brand.
We have been recently been made aware that people are pretending to be Appbot to run a task scam.
What is a Task Scam?
A task scam is where they offer a fake work-from-home job with promises of earning a lot of money to complete simple tasks. However, they require you to pay to start working and also provide a lot of personal information. People pretending to be Appbot are contacting people with jobs names like “App Optimization”, “ASO Expert”, “App Growth Specialist” or “Data Generation User”.
How to protect yourself from Task Scams
These scams are becoming more common as more people look for flexible and remote work opportunities. They can be very convincing so be cautious and take some precautions to protect yourself.
Recognize the Common Red Flags
It is important that you can identify a task scam. There are some common signs of task scams:
- Unsolicited Job Offers: Be cautious of strangers that contact you about a job for which you did not apply. They will often reference a large well known recruitment agency from your area.
- Contact via Text Messages Only: They only contact you via text using messaging apps like Whats App or Telegram or via Social Media websites.
- Too Good to Be True: Offers of work-from-home jobs that offer high earnings, with no experience and very little effort or time.
- Cryptocurrency Payments: Employers generally do not pay in cryptocurrency. Scammers use it because it is very hard to trace and recover.
- Cloned Brands and Websites: They use trusted brands like Appbot to create cloned websites, but the URL and contact details does not match the official company details.
- Pressure to Act Quickly: Scammers often try to create a sense of urgency to prevent you from researching or thinking too much about their offers.
- Require Payment to Work: They will ask for a small initial payment to start working, but promising much larger payouts.
- Pay Small Returns: Sometimes the payout small amounts to build your trust and convince you to invest more money for bigger returns.
- Changing URLs: They will often suddenly lose access to a URL and will advise it is down for maintenance or updates, but then share a totally different URL. This is due to it being reported and taken down.
Do Your Own Research
If you are suspicious of an unsolicited job offer do your own research. Do not only rely on the information they have provided you.
- Is it a real company? Search the internet or online business registers. Appbot is an Australian company, registered since 2014.
- Search the internet: Look for the company + scam. Have others reported that they are being used for a task or similar scam? Check forums like Reddit’s Scam forum.
- Check the Company Jobs page: Are they currently recruiting for the job you have been contacted about? We have added a warning to our Jobs page.
- Contact the company to confirm the details: Use their official email address or Contact page on the company website.
- Check the URL: Does it match the company’s official website, not just include the company name? Often they will share the company’s official website to gain your trust, then will share a different URL for the job/task.
Appbot only operates under https://appbot.co
Fake website URLs used previously (not an exhaustive list):
https://appbot-very.com
https://appbot-webs.cc
https://appbottry.cc
https://appbotanalysis.com
https://appbotgrow.cc
https://appbots-webs.io
https://appbotus-aso.cc
https://appbotappspage.com
https://appbotimprove.cc
https://appbotus-premium.cc
https://appbot-talent.com
https://appbotus-platform.cc
https://appbotview.com
https://appbotbox.com
https://appbotreversion.com
https://appbotindia.net
https://appbotrevie.com
https://appbotasoapp.com - Check the Domain Name Register: For any URLs they want you to use to register your details or complete tasks. It shows who owns the domain name and registration date. Does it match the official company URL details? Is the registration only recent, as in the last few months? Does it have a short registration period? These are all red flags.
If You’re a Victim of a Task Scam
There are some steps you can take to help stop the scammers:
- Report them to the Federal Trade Commission or equivalent in your country.
- Contact the company and share details so they can take steps to stop them. Share as much information as you can including any screenshots of conversations or URLs they are using.
- If they contact you using an app or social media report them to the app
- If you have shared important personal details like your tax numbers, take steps to report to the relevant authorities.
- Share your experiences to help educate others.
What is Appbot Doing About Task Scams?
When we become aware of scammers we do our best to stop them by:
- Taking appropriate legal steps to have these scammers stopped.
- Reporting them to their web and domain hosts for Trademark infringement so the website is taken down.
- Reporting them to the relevant government authorities.
- Sharing our experiences online including in Reddit’s Scam forum to warn others.
- Regularly updating our website to include warnings and articles like this one.
If you have any questions about possible scams using Appbot’s name please do not hesitate to Contact us.
