Over the weekend, our company began receiving calls and messages to verify a job ad. Apparently, a group of scammers has been using our company name to trick potential scam victims into thinking the job was real.
Scammers create FAKE job ad to lure victims
These scammers posted a job for a ‘Social Media Specialist’ position and are advertising it on Instagram.
The post looks like this:
Here’s how the scam works:
1. People who are interested upon swiping up will be redirected to this number:
2. They’ll claim that they are from INFLUASIA or any other digital company and then send a WhatsApp group link for you to join.
3. After joining the group, you’ll be contacted privately by someone known as “Instructor” who will “guide” you on what the job is about.
This is the typical scam where they’d ask you to purchase an item on an e-commerce website and they’ll reimburse you with a 10% commission.
After gaining your trust, they’ll proceed to ask you to buy bigger purchases but would claim your money is stuck due to system error and so in order to get your money back, you’ll have to purchase more items. This of course would result in you losing a couple hundred to thousand Ringgit.
4. In the WhatsApp group, there are other “members” who are actually all scammers. They’d praise how easy the job is and how they’ve successfully made money to trick you into believing it’s a legit job.
P.S.: Look at these idiotic scammers acting like no tomorrow to try to fool victims.
P.S.S.: The profile pictures these scammers are using do not belong to them.
Multiple red flags that this is a scam
While going undercover pretending to be an interested party, there were plenty of red flags:
1. The job ad is posted by “Titan” which cannot be found anywhere on social media.
2. There’s spacing before and after “INFLUASIA” indicating this space is often changed to replace other company names.
3. For legit part-time or full-time jobs, most companies will provide an offer letter which includes the company details & job scope of your role before asking you to execute a task. This is also a way for you to safeguard yourself by having black & white information of what you’re required to do and the terms that come with it.
4. No legit company would ask their employees or people that they hire to fork out hundreds of Ringgit in advance (let alone by someone you’ve never seen or met before).
After trying to call them out for scamming, these people still wanna act bodoh. I then revealed that I am actually part of INFLUASIA and will be reporting this to the authorities. Needless to say, I was removed from the group and blocked everywhere instantly.
So, here’s an article to warn others of such a scam happening.
Unfortunately, this can happen to any company, even your own.
What to do to verify a scam
Scams evolve over time and some can be quite hard to distinguish. So, next time you’re unsure, here are some things you can do to verify if a job ad is real:
- Call or message the company by looking up their phone number, social media page, or email
- Ask the job offerer to send you a black & white document of the employment via their official company email (it shouldn’t come from a normal gmail account)
- Set up an appointment with them via Google video call or the office (scammers do not risk showing their faces)
Be careful guys and always be wary as the number of scam reports have increase dramatically since the pandemic.
Also read: Struggling Malaysian Parents Scammed by FAKE Job Offer on Social Media
