Scammer promises $40,500 profit but only after 'new investor' pays $8,000 'company fee'
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Ong Su Mann
Posted on 15 February 2024 | 1,520 views | 10 commentsAt least 461 people have lost a total of $6.8 million to online investment and job scams this year, said the police.
You are advised to be cautious when you are added to chat groups or channels on Telegram and WhatsApp by unknown persons offering special investment or job opportunities.
Investment scammers would share testimonials from other members who claim to have profited from the various “investment mechanisms” to lure the victims.
Tempted by the attractive “opportunities”, the victims contacted the scammers and were offered “investment packages”.
They were then prompted to provide their personal information to “set up accounts” and instructed to transfer their money to specified PayNow numbers, bank accounts, or cryptocurrency wallets as part of the “investment”.
As part of “setting up accounts”, scammers may instruct victims to download virtual private network applications to access the “investment” websites.
These are instead scam websites used to reinforce the deceit.
Before victims receive “earnings” from their “investments”, they were led to transfer increasingly large sums for “fees incurred” for the “investment”.
In one case, a "new investor" was promised a $40,500 profit after a $8,000 "company fee" was paid.
Victims would only realise they had been scammed when they were unable to withdraw their earnings despite the “fees” transferred to the scammers.
In job scams, the victims were added to chat groups or channels by scammers promising profitable and easy online jobs.
To give the impression that these job offers are authentic, scammers may claim to represent companies such as TikTok or actual online communications/marketing companies.
Victims would be given tasks involving the generation of social media traction, such as following, liking or commenting on accounts or posts on TikTok or Instagram, liking or subscribing to YouTube channels or videos, liking songs on Spotify or liking posts on Trip.com.
Upon completion of “tasks”, the victims would receive a small commission.
After victims were convinced that they could earn more commission, the scammers would introduce more “rewarding tasks”.
In some cases, scammers would provide victims with fake employment contracts to reinforce the deception.
To perform these tasks, victims had to open accounts on scam job websites and then transfer increasingly large sums of money to bank accounts or crypto wallets provided by the scammers.
Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when their website account showed a negative account balance and were told to pay additional funds to “upgrade their accounts” or when they were unable to withdraw their “earnings”.
Police strongly advise being cautious when added to chatgroups or channels and proffered dubious investment or job opportunities. You are encouraged to activate the privacy function on your devices which disallows unknown users from adding you to chatgroups,
