AT least 1,013 people have lost no less than S$17.6mil (RM58.5mil) this year, after falling prey to job scams in which they were given commission for completing simple surveys before being offered fake jobs by scammers.
The police warned yesterday of this job scam variant where victims would receive unsolicited WhatsApp or Telegram messages asking them to participate in a survey or market research, and to answer a few questions.
The questions were usually about food delivery platforms, tourism or events and festivals.
When the victims completed the surveys, they would receive a small commission.
“After victims were convinced that they could earn commission, scammers would provide another WhatsApp or Telegram contact to the victims, suggesting that the victims could reach out to the contact for more rewarding jobs,” the police said.
The scammers would then ask the victims to help “boost” the value of cryptocurrencies or rate mobile applications to improve their rankings on app stores.
The victims were instructed to create accounts on scam sites to perform these tasks, and transfer money to bank accounts provided by the scammers.
“Victims would realise that they had been scammed when they failed to withdraw their commission or when the scammers could no longer be contacted,” the police said.
On Monday, The Straits Times reported on a similar ruse where scammers, posing as real property agents, were paying social media users to post fake rental listings for them on sites like Facebook and Carousell.
A scammer allegedly paid the users S$50 (RM166.20) each to share the listings on their real accounts so that it would appear more legitimate. — The Straits Times/ANN
