A WOMAN fell prey to a detailed part-time job scam promoted on social media, resulting in a loss of nearly RM30,000.
According to Weirdkaya, the woman had clicked on a random advertisement that persuaded her to fill in her contact details, after which another woman contacted her on WhatsApp and added her to a group chat with 20 other members.
Initially, the victim did not pay much attention to the group chat until she noticed other members sharing screenshots of their success stories of earning high commissions after completing some tasks.
Intrigued, the victim decided to give it a shot, and an administrator of the group referred her to a person claiming to be from a marketing company for further instructions.
The woman then received information from a poster sent by the company explaining the steps to earn her commission; where she was required to click a link to an online shopping platform, add an item to the cart, send a screenshot of the item to the administrator and finally purchasing the item by depositing the money to a bank account.
For the first task, the woman bought an item priced at RM60 and managed to receive the full amount added with a RM6 commission within five minutes.
The victim was then asked if she wanted to complete other tasks, to which she agreed since the scammer promised her an RM288 bonus if she completed five tasks. She then purchased an item worth more than RM200 and was then handed a full refund plus a 10 percent commission.
Seeing that nothing was wrong, the victim went ahead with her third task that involved buying a watch priced at RM999, but something was amiss when the scammer told the victim to pay the original price instead of the discounted price displayed on the listing.
Even though the victim made amends by purchasing more units, the administrator included additional steps that resulted in price hikes which lead the woman paying the scammers nearly a hefty sum of RM30,000.
After completing her tasks, she was congratulated by the fraudsters, but as she requested a refund, they immediately switched their tone and claimed that there was a glitch and even demanded that she buy a RM15,000 computer to unfreeze her account.
Thankfully, she put her foot down and told them her funds had depleted. She did threaten to report the syndicate to the police, but the scammers remained calm and even offered to assist in their investigations if needed.
With the situation seeming more suspicious, the victim researched the company online and found many testimonies of several people being scammed in a similar fashion which led her to lodge a police report.
She was told that the authorities had been working very hard to amplify public awareness on the matter that has boomed since the Covid-19 lockdown where many had been financially strapped.
The victim also hoped that her story will serve as a cautionary tale warning others to be careful of such juicy offers.
“Don’t trust all ads in social media so easily without doing thorough background check & research. Also, don’t bank in money easily to suspicious accounts, although you may see others doing the same as they may be part of the scam syndicate.
“Also, remain calm and talk to your family & friends when you face an issue like this and never trust anyone you don’t know online,” she advised.
