Phone callers who say three specific words should immediately ring alarm bells – and if you hear them, you need to hang up the phone straight away. The phrase is "Add my WhatsApp," and it could signal a highly sophisticated click-farm scam.
These unsolicited calls often come from strangers claiming to be recruiters with the perfect job opportunity. The conversation almost always ends with that simple instruction. For those not looking for work, it is clearly a scam. But for those desperately job hunting, it can be incredibly tempting to do exactly as they say and send a message.
What Happens If You Engage
One TikToker, known online as The Night Network, decided to play along to expose exactly how the scammers operate. In a video debunking the elaborate con, he pretended to be vaguely interested in the job on offer. He noted that the 'recruiter' on the other end of the WhatsApp chat was "clearly a bot, because it replies very quickly and its grammar ain't great."
The bot quickly pitched a ridiculously simple gig, such as "packing up items from home," claiming victims could earn upwards of £150 a day. For many people, it sounds like the ultimate work-from-home dream. However, as the TikToker 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.
What Do They Really Want?
"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 back. Almost immediately, the scammers went totally quiet. He added: "It was at that point I realised that this is a click farm."
According to the TikToker, your information was likely obtained from a massive data leak, allowing scammers to contact you 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. Clients – ranging from hotels to restaurants – pay these farms to artificially boost their online ratings.
How the Click Farm Works
Because tech giants like Google now crack down on fake reviews coming from the same IP address, the scammers have had to get creative. "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 doesn't actually want to employ you – they just want to exploit your device and location for a single authentic-looking review before discarding you to boost the algorithm. While some viewers found the scam terrifying, others were less concerned. 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 massive rise in employment-based fraud, a spokesperson for jobs board Indeed issued a stark 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."
