Fake app testing job ads—what they are and how you can protect yourself

Banks are a popular target for cybercriminals these days—in fact, one in four cases of online fraud is directed against banks. The aim of these attacks is to steal customers’ money or personal data, or to launder criminally acquired funds. Social engineering methods such as job scamming or phishing are increasingly used by cybercriminals worldwide. Here, we’ll explain how these scams work, and what you can do to keep your data safe. 

Scammers often set up fake app testing job ads, impersonating companies such as N26 to access personal information or private financial data. Victims of these attacks will often disclose their data because they believe they are applying for a position at the company. The process generally goes like this: scammers will promise applicants attractive bonuses for opening an account with N26 or other banks on a trial basis. Then, they ask applicants to submit their personal data (including passwords, email addresses, user names, and IBANs) to a fake recruiter in order to open their account. With this data, the fraudsters can then use the victim’s account for criminal purposes, all in the victim’s name.

• "MYTE Ltd. or Myte 360 is looking for part-time testers"
• "Individuality-province.de is looking for work-at-home app testers on a 450 euro basis"
• "clever-test.de is looking for app testers on a 450 euro basis"
• "marktix.net is looking for work-at-home process testers"

Recognizing a fraudulent job ad isn’t always easy. However, you should always make sure you know who’s behind the job offer before you apply. A great way to start your investigation is to search the internet for the website, telephone number, or contact person listed in the job ad. If you notice that this data does not match 100% with the data of the company, alarm bells should start going off. 

If you see an app testing job offer, or any other job offer that looks suspicious, here are some steps you can take to find out if it’s legit:

• Do some detective work online. For example, enter the telephone number, URL or contact person into a search engine.
• Look at the ad carefully. If you find spelling mistakes, differing fonts, and strange phrasing, this could indicate a fake job offer.
• If the salary mentioned is very attractive, you should be careful. Scammers often lure victims with offers that are very tempting. Ask yourself: is this too good to be true? 

Because we do app testing internally, N26 doesn’t hire app testers, and we will never ask you to open an N26 account for testing purposes. 

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Think you’ve been the victim of a fake job scam? If so, you’ll need to report it to your local police station as soon as possible. If you have also disclosed bank details, including your personal data or a copy of your passport, you should report this to your bank as soon as possible so that your account can be blocked. If you want to educate yourself about online scams, you can learn more about social engineering and how you can protect yourself against it in this article.