News

In Less Than 11 Days, Over $430K Were Lost to Job Scams

2022-05-12 , 10:36 am

Trying to earn fast and easy money may be enticing, but in most cases it’s usually too good to be true.

And with job scams being so prevalent last year, you might think that people would become a tad more vigilant.

Unfortunately, for some individuals, they still fell for the schemes of sneaky job scammers.

In less than half of this month, over 50 victims have already been swindled of at least $430,000 by job scams, said the police on Wednesday (11 May).

Commission Job Scam

How did the scammers do it?

Well, you might already be familiar with the commission method, previously broken down in detail by a woman who joined the job scam.

The victim basically receives unsolicited spoofed messages sent by e-commerce platforms offering job opportunities.

The messages would typically come via SMS, WhatsApp or other social media platforms and promised simple, but highly paid, affiliate marketing-related jobs.

For instance, workers could be paid $2 for every product liked.

Or given the classic jingle “Earn $300 in a day just working from home!”

Given Initial Commission

However, victims would first need to sign up for an account on a spoofed website resembling Lazada, a reputable online shopping site, before they could begin earning commissions.

After doing the initial simple task, the victims would be allowed to withdraw their initial commissions (of small amounts), which made the scam seem more legitimate.

After withdrawing these commissions, victims would then be promised commissions of up to 30 per cent if they were to purchase items on the website.

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Transfer Money to Unknown Accounts

However, to make the purchase, they would have to transfer money to bank accounts belonging to unknown individuals.

Of course, this is the most crucial step of the scam as the cost of the items would be much pricier, in order to gain back the scammers’ initial loss from the first commission payout.

The victims would eventually discover that they had been scammed when they were unable to withdraw from their accounts, or when the spoofed Lazada website was removed.

Never Recruit Through Messaging Platforms

The police said that Lazada does not conduct recruitment via SMS, WhatsApp or Telegram chats.

It added that Lazada will also never direct you to a third-party website nor request for your personal details to sign up for jobs. Note that down, please.

The public should also not download applications from unverified sources and send money to people they do not know personally.

Most importantly, these job scams do not work unless people fall prey to the lucrative returns promised and respond to the scammers.

So lest you become a fraction of the number of scam victims, do not accept such dubious job offers.

Or you could always give the scammers a taste of their own medicine and respond with your own scam message.