This scam destroys families & nations.
It sounds cool to say, I went undercover to expose the modus operandi of this scamming syndicate. This is a true story.
Chronology of events:
- WhatsApp. Recruitment for a part-time job in an advertising company. Fully remote work and flexible.
- WhatsApp. Pass 3 Youtube subscription task. Get a starter RM30.
- Telegram. Get one agent aka receptionist. Added to a Telegram group. 200 people.
- Telegram. The Youtube subscription task starts at 10 am, and ends at 9 pm. 30 tasks per day. Each task interval 20min. Get RM10 per subscription.
- Telegram. Each day at random times, at most 3 occurrences per day, a special task will appear. Merchant Currency Data Task. This is the game.
- Telegram. Played most tasks, and earn RM800 real money cash-in to my bank on the first day of the game.
- Sick. Busy job. Busy. Busy.
- Telegram. Decided to play 1 day, make big money and stop.
- Telegram. Merchant Currency Data Task, I decided to play, and the scammers decided to win.
- Telegram. I stopped at losing RM2,000. If I played, I would have lost RM6,800.
- Now that I've gathered the operation proofs, it's a good time to share with the people, so you and the people stay safe and vigilant.
Detail of events:
A random unknown recruiter will approach you in WhatsApp, representing a company. The company exist on LinkedIn. This ads job is not real. If you try to find proof of the identity of the recruiter, he will deflect, not submit and rejects you. Their play is, you're the one in need of job, if you don't trust us, we don't need you.
Pass 3 Youtube subscription task. Get a starter RM30. The subscription task is way too simple and naive, just take a screenshot of the subscription. Smart people are always curious, how do you know that subscription belongs to my account? What if after I subscribe, then I decided to unsubscribe? Don't ask too many questions, keep it simple, rules as stated, and you get paid.
Job in Telegram starts. You're assigned a cute auditor. She adds you to a working group of 200 people. Showing below my first agent. I was an idle inactive member for some time. A week after I joined, the agent and the working group is marked as scams. Actual people were furious in the group. Somebody has got scammed big and lost money. A few moments later, everybody was kicked, and the group disappears as if it never existed. There was no way to find back the working group or chat history.
My agent Kathleen, passed me to a new agent Nur Dinie Afiqah.
I'll jump straight into how I made RM800 on 1-day playing this. I did most of the Youtube subscription tasks continuously, with each task at RM10, and 24 tasks, earned RM240. In between those 24 tasks, I did 2 data merchant currency tasks.
Now, what is the Data Merchant Currency task? This is the gibberish they provided. So, please trust them.
Merchant task, need to prepay to the merchant account.
Prepaid tasks are part of merchant hype contracts
We prepay to increase the purchase record and reputation of merchants, and they get more business activities and contracts
Prepayment increases the merchant's purchase record and enables the merchant to gain a higher reputation
This is a merchant task, 30% commission reward
We generate transaction records for merchants and merchants pay us.
They guarantee you 30% profit, as long as you finish that task. It was my first time, so they went easy on me. I bank in RM100. I got back RM100 + RM30 + RM20(bonus). Then I participated in the second Merchant task on the same day, this time it was (1+1), and to my surprise, this was how it goes. I bank in RM300. Then I have to and did bank in RM950. I got back RM1,725. Profit RM475 (inclusive bonus due to 2 consecutive merchant task participation). I got scared and did not participate in 3rd merchant task of the day.
After somewhile not participating in the Youtube subscription and Merchant task, the payout for a Youtube subscription becomes RM1 per subscription, and they only pay if your cumulative reach RM30+, which I never reach as I was busy with my actual work and let's be honest, it's less rewarding.
Now, let me present the detail on how I lost RM2k and proof of how this game works.
On 9th July 2023, I decided to play the Merchant Currency Data Task.
Proof of why this is a scam and their methodologies. Based on my analysis, this syndicate can be run by at least 2 people. 2 person holds multiple fake Telegram accounts. I've been observing for weeks and they often have same scripted answer. The working group of 200 people, most probably only 5 people are real victims targeted. The fake accounts will promote how fun and lucrative this job is. The names they use sometimes exist in social media but ain't the real person.
The same person will change their account names and roles. Continue disguising and cheating victims. Here is proof from my first time successful experience playing Merchant task, which I earned +RM475 profit. Look at the username Nur Dinie Afiqah, this screenshot was taken on 9th July for a conversation that happened on 19th June. Comparing this to their previous scam that happened on 21st June, after this date some of their accounts were labelled scam, and many fake user accounts have gone through name change. In my previous encounter, Nur Dinie Afiqah had a different name like Adibah. At that time, she disguised as participant of Merchant data task.
That concludes my sharing. Don't get scammed. Learn from other people's experiences and always be curious.
Money that comes too easy, will not stay with you, it will leave you with more money, dignity and self-respect. Stay safe guys!
Safwan Masarik is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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