I get on the subway and go home. I sit down, take the phone and… I open TikTok. It’s a moment of decompression. At the end of a work day, spend a few minutes watching videos that I could do without distracts the mind a bitat least I think. I recognize the flow of the algorithm: a video about the war in Iran, some memes, some statements from politicians, some podcast excerpt and something mountainous. And then she comes: advertising. Here the algorithm offers me the video of a profile that has activated the sponsorship. There’s something familiar about it. The account name is TikTok. That’s the symbol of the app. It reads: “Did you know TikTok is adding this option in 2026.”
In the video you can see a smartphone open on TikTok settings where you see an option called “Watch the video & Earn”. Below there is also a counter: Balance 268.59 eurosvideos watched 198 videos. About 1.3 euros per video. Still not bad for something I normally do for free. But something doesn’t add up. I have been involved in technology for years and I have never seen a release or a memo from TikTok in which they talk about a function for pay users directly. At most a few years ago a fund was launched to pay creators: a system of remuneration based on visits and interactions on its contents but it didn’t last long.
The WhatsApp group with Spotify Promoter
The option doesn’t exist, at least at the moment. I open the profile that posted the video. There are several videos with the same format. The texts and shots just change. Just one note: the video cannot be downloaded and cannot be forwarded. Not only that. A banner opens in the TikTok profile telling us “Find out more: apply now”. At this point it is clear that it’s a scam but we might as well continue to understand where the whole operation is going. The name of the account also confirms this: it looks like TikTok but it is zjtd.tk.
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I click the banner. A bot automatically records the telephone number with which I signed up to the platform. Nothing else happens. I’m a little disappointed and let it go. After a few days, however, it arrives part twomore interesting. I’m signed up for a WhatsApp group with 30 other people. Or rather, with the accounts of 30 users who seem like as many people to me. A profile called Spotify Promoter offers a simple job.
He is an agent who works for improve your ranking on Spotify of the artists he works with. You must save the indicated song on a personal playlist and send the screenshot to prove that you have completed the operation. Once everything is done you will receive them 10 euros. I observe the messages flowing in the group, someone asks for details, someone raises doubts but is convinced when the screenshots of the bank transfers also arrive. The song to save on your playlist was You I feelof the Matia Bazar. Of course, a choice not exactly in line with the recording proposals of the moment: it was published in 1985.
All very beautiful. But most likely in the midst of this conversation yesI am the only human being. The profile numbers they write all have prefixes +20a formula that corresponds to the numbers recorded in Egypt. Someone +1United States. Others +96here too a code linked to various countries in the Middle East, from Jordan to Syria. There is some +39Italian. But he doesn’t speak. It seems to me that here too the situation is clear: I am faced with a series of bot messages that serve to convince me that I am ahead of a real job offer.
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It’s one known scam scheme. Maybe the first payment arrives. But then for the others we start asking the user to make small investments. Pay 16 euroskeep watching the videos and you will get some 20. For a while the game works. The promise is that of return everything with interest as the work progresses. The final chapter of the scam also explained this Massimiliano Donalawyer and president ofNational Consumers Union. In one of his videos he explains the whole mechanism and anticipates what happens in the end: “When they steal the victim’s trust they ask for larger sums, starting from 500 euros. At that point, needless to say, the scammers make off with the loot”.
