A man has warned that if you hear three specific words during a phone call, you should hang up immediately and block the number. The warning comes after a TikTok user, known online as The Night Network, shared a video exposing how scammers operate and what they are really after.
The three words that should end the call
According to the warning, if you hear the phrase "add my WhatsApp" from someone claiming to be a recruiter, it is important to stop the call there. Even if you are looking for a job, legitimate sites will never communicate with you in this way, asking you to send them a message.
The TikTok user decided to go along with the scam to expose exactly how these fraudsters work. He acted as though he was moderately interested in the position being offered. He observed that the 'recruiter' communicating via WhatsApp was "clearly a bot, because it replies very quickly and its grammar ain't great".
What the scammers really want
The bot presented an absurdly straightforward role, such as "packing up items from home," alleging victims could make upwards of £150 a day. However, as the TikTok user explained, this is a classic "bait and switch". The scammers entice you with the promise of easy money, but packaging boxes is not what they actually want you to do.
"They want Google reviews from you," he revealed. The scammers initially asked him to leave a five-star review for a hotel on Google Maps in exchange for a £7 payment. Suspicious of the link they provided, he Googled the hotel himself, left a fake review, and asked for his money to be paid. Almost immediately, the scammers went completely silent. He added: "It was at that point I realised that this is a click farm."
How click farms work
According to the TikTok user, your personal details were most likely sourced from a large-scale data breach, enabling scammers to reach out and "poach you for various different scams".
"A click farm is essentially a big company that sells reviews if your business isn't doing that well," he explained. Clients — ranging from hotels to restaurants — pay these operations to artificially inflate their online ratings. Because tech giants such as Google now clamp down on fraudulent reviews originating from the same IP address, the scammers have been forced to become more inventive.
"This is a way that they can sell reviews and make them look organic, because they're all coming from different devices throughout the country," he warned. "So they're targeting British people to review these businesses, as a promise, there's a job in it for you."
The click farm has no genuine intention of hiring you — it simply wants to exploit your device and location for a single convincing-looking review before casting you aside in order to manipulate the algorithm.
Reaction and official warning
While some viewers found the scam alarming, others were considerably less troubled. One wrote: "As scams go, it is fairly harmless as you won't actually be losing any money. Still annoying." Another joked: "It's just funny because scams have gone from 'You've won £1,000,000' to 'Here, have a job'."
Following a substantial surge in employment-related fraud, a spokesperson for jobs board Indeed issued a stern warning: "Job seekers are at the heart of everything we do, and their safety and trust are a top priority. We are aware of scams involving individuals falsely posing as 'Indeed recruiters' offering fake jobs in an attempt to gain money or request personal information. These are in no way affiliated with Indeed, and we strongly condemn bad actors who exploit the trust job seekers place in our platform and brand."
