In just 1 day, a Malaysian lost RM4.5k after being recruited through WhatsApp by a person posing as HR from a legitimate company.
It turns out that although the company is real, scammers have been using the brand’s name to pose as job recruiters looking to hire part-time workers to perform simple tasks online which they get paid for.
On the 14th of April, Maya (not her real name) performed 3 simple tasks, one of them was to subscribe to a YouTube channel and she was later paid RM15 for her “work” that was to increase the company’s viewership count.
Provided to world of buzz
Provided to world of buzz
After completing the simple task and getting paid, Maya felt that she could possibly trust this supposed company and decided to continue accepting more tasks.
She was then told to join a Telegram group with 200 other “employees”.
This time, every 5 tasks was rewarded with RM50. Maya did the same simple tasks of subscribing to random YouTube channels and then taking a screenshot to send as proof of her work.
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And guess what? She got paid RM100 after completing 10 of the tasks. Seeing as she got paid despite the dodgy process, Maya stayed on for more information and possible money.
Things take a turn for the worse
At this point she was told to liaise with a “mentor” that was to teach her how to invest in crypto and her first task was to transfer RM100 to customer services and she’ll get a cashback reward of RM30 + the RM100 she transferred earlier, so she thought she wouldn’t have made any losses. And lo and behold the RM130 was then transferred into her bank account.
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Speaking to WORLD OF BUZZ, Maya said that she was desperately looking for a job and seeing as she was getting paid good money she went on to follow further instructions to transfer more money (over RM4.5k) to the customer services for the crypto scheme.
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As if that were not enough, she was still not getting paid back the RM4,500 she was promised and was told to invest an additional RM6k to get it all back.
By this time, she had a hunch it was all a scam but was still in-denial. She contacted her boyfriend to ask for RM6k so that she could try and get all her money back but he explained to her that it was all an elaborate scheme.
30 minutes after telling her parents, Maya then made a police report at a police station in Ampang. The Police Inspector in charge had explained that cases of job scams like this are so common nowadays.
When asked by WORLD OF BUZZ if she had any calls or online video calls with the scammers, she said no. Moreover the bank account she was told to transfer to “customer services” did not carry the company’s name.
Maya said that as a fresh graduate she is exposed to a lot of investment plan messages, or agents looking to recruit investors.
“It’s better to meet the person you want to work with or onboard any investments face to face.”
She urges people to not trust easily and hopes that her story can raise awareness amongst job seekers to always exercise caution.
The Telegram group she’s still in now has over 400 members and she is sure that many of them are also getting scammed as well.
We hope she recovers from this incident and that others will be weary of such crimes.
Also Read: 34yo Woman In Sarawak Losses Over RM45,000 To Online Job Scam On Facebook
