Every couple of months or so, a new COVID-19 variant is reported in the news. However, nothing evolves as quickly as a scammer.
Gone are the days where they would simply call you pretending to be from “ABC Bank”. All that time spent at home during lockdowns was clearly put to good use as these scammers have upped their game and devised incredibly sophisticated schemes to swindle unsuspecting victims.
And if you happen to fall prey to these scams, you could end up losing your savings.
NSF Lost $6.7K in Savings After Accepting Job as Part-Time Affiliate Marketing Associate
When 20-year-old Johnson Poon came across a job listing that promised a daily salary of between S$300 and S$500, he probably couldn’t believe his luck.
The position in the job listing was an “affiliate marketing associate”, whose task would be to boost sales for the e-commerce site Shopee.
The only problem was that no such job existed.
The full-time national serviceman (NSF) was told that before he could earn his salary, he would have to make advance purchases for products on Shopee to boost sales for certain products.
He was assured he would get his money back plus a small commission after an item was purchased.
Alarm bells went off in Poon’s head when he was told that the purchases wouldn’t be made on the platform: he would have to transfer money to a bank account number provided, instead.
However, even though he was suspicious, the NSF was convinced that the scammers were part of a marketing team in Shopee that was simply trying to boost “click rates” for certain products.
Police Warn of New Scam Trend
Yesterday, the police warned the public about the new scam trend, saying the job ads are either posted on Facebook or sent via unsolicited WhatsApp messages from unknown numbers.
Just as the NSF experienced, recipients of the message would be offered a job as an affiliate marketing associate that paid a daily salary of between S$300 to S$500.
Of course, if such an opportunity existed, half the country would quit their jobs within 24 hours.
The scam message would also include a WhatsApp number to contact to sign up for the job.
If contacted, victims would be informed that they would have to make advance purchases to improve sales on an e-commerce website.
They would be assured they’d get their money back plus a 10% commission.
But instead of purchasing the products on the platform itself, they’d be asked to transfer the money to a bank account.
Scammers will refund the victims at first to lower their guard, but will later claim that they have encountered some issues with refunds and become uncontactable.
Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You should also never share your bank account details with anyone.
These scammers are getting craftier every day. We have to keep up.
Featured Image: Singapore Police Force
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