The devil may be working hard, but scammers have proven yet again that they work harder.
$22 Cleaning Fee becomes $21,000
A 40-year-old victim, Ms Ye, chanced upon a “cleaning company” advertisement on Facebook earlier this month.
The advertisement claimed the cleaning fee was only about $22 for a four-hour package every two weeks.
If the deal sounded too good to be true; you’re alright, because it was a scam.
Talking to Shin Min Daily News, Ms Ye explained that she reached out to the advertisement because she felt the price was favourable and suitable for her family.
The “cleaning company”‘s “employee” then contacted Ms Ye via Whatsapp the next day and asked her to download the company’s mobile application.
She followed their instructions, which included entering her bank card number on the mobile app to pay the initial deposit of $5.
After entering her card number, the app declared that her card was invalid. Confused, Ms Ye reported it back to the “employee”, who told her to try again.
The bank card was still declared invalid the second time; this was when the other party continued to ask her to use another bank card.
This was when Ms Ye felt that something was amiss. She became suspicious of the process and stopped using it. With her suspicions growing, she checked her credit card transfer record and found that $21,000 had been transferred out of the card.
Shortly after the discovery that she had fallen victim to an elaborate scam, she immediately reported the whole incident to the police.
While it is unfortunate that this happened to Ms Ye, I can’t help but imagine the scammers being so dedicated to the craft that they make a whole mobile app, because trust me, developing an app is very, very expensive.
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Not the First Time
Ms Ye’s story is actually extremely similar to one that was reported days earlier.
On 24 November, 47-year-old Ms. Lu also fell victim to the same elaborate scam.
She had also seen an advertisement for a “cleaning company”‘s service on Facebook. After exchanging some Whatsapp messages with the “employee”, they sent her a link for her to make a $5 deposit.
The link then brought her to a website where she had to complete the usual online payment process; input her credit card number, expiration date, cardholder’s name, etc.
Like Ms Ye, Ms Lu’s card was also declared invalid. She also tried with a second card that was also declared… invalid.
When Ms Lu asked about what to do, they told her that she could just pay the cleaners in cash when they arrived.
As you may have guessed, they never arrived.
Instead, she received an unwanted service from someone making unauthorized transfers totalling about $4,300 from her bank account to an unknown Thai account.
Now that’s a lot of damage.
This is also a great reminder that as the end-of-year great sales come around, do keep a lookout for online scams that may sound too good to be true. Especially if they declared your bank card to be invalid.
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Featured Image: Zaobao
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