Security15.10.2024

Kissing R1 million goodbye

A South African woman who fell victim to a recruitment scam has explained how she lost over a million rand to swindlers promising people huge earnings in exchange for completing certain tasks.

Speaking to Eblockwatch founder Andre Snyman, the victim said the manipulation begins small, with the fraudsters asking their marks to “deposit” around R1,800.

They are then asked to complete a task in exchange for roughly R500. The initial deposit and payment are then transferred back to the victim’s bank account, building trust that the scheme is legitimate.

This victim’s report aligns with MyBroadband’s experience investigating a recruitment scam that targeted South Africans.

In our case, the bait was “a simple freelance job” offering payment in exchange for subscribing to various YouTube channels.

They initially promised to pay R50 per task, up to a maximum of R2,500 per day.

It should be emphasised that the job is fake. There aren’t really YouTube channels paying recruiters R15–R50 per new subscriber they bring in.

The scammers select a relatively simple task to ask victims to complete as part of the con.

It creates the veneer that there is a real job when they are actually trying to trick people who may be desperate for work.

They do this by inviting you to a group chat, usually on Telegram, where you can see messages from people thanking the “company” for their substantial payouts.

These messages are intended to put the victim at ease while simultaneously planting the seed that there is an optional fast track offering much higher earnings.

On the slow track, the scheme promises R10 to R20 per task, whereas on the fast track, the scheme promises hundreds or thousands of rands.

However, to qualify for the fast track, victims must put down a deposit. If you ask about this, the scammers will usually offer an explanation like ensuring participants are serious about the task.

According to the victim who spoke to Eblockwatch, once the scammers have tricked you into paying your first deposit, it escalates quickly.

She said after the first big payout, she was placed into a smaller group and “matched” to an “investment task” that required her to put up R100,000.

After completing the task, she explained that you aren’t paid your money back. Instead, you are matched to a second, even larger task.

“Once you’ve paid the big amount over, they match you to another investment task, and the amount jumps to, say, for instance, R200,000,” she said.

However, the rules also change as this is now a “group task”.

“If it matches to three or four tasks, and you can only afford one or you’ve already paid the money for one and want to get out, everyone in the group loses their money,” the victim explained.

“You are pressured and manipulated — you can’t not give the money because everyone will lose.”

Example of a recruitment scam in action, with several red flags indicating that it is a con

Once the fraudsters have harvested as much from you as they think they can get and you are about to get your payout, they concoct a mistake you’ve made that has locked the funds in your profile.

“Now you have to pay another R90,000 or R100,000 or whatever to get it out,” she said.

“After you do that, they say you now need to pay the tax on the amount.”

On the R500,000 or R600,000 in her profile, they said she owed about R380,000 according to the South African Revenue Service’s tax tables.

If you pay that amount, they send you from pillar to post claiming that the finance person, then the person doing the trades, then your initial contact, and ultimately the bank was blocking the transfer.

“Eventually, you do get a proof of payment, but it’s a fake — you never see your money again.”

According to the victim, her bank said there was nothing they could do, and the police claim to still be investigating 10 months later.

“I have had to kiss that money goodbye,” she said.

Asked why she had so much money in her account, the victim explained that she had just left her previous job and received her provident fund payout.

“Oh! And then, after the whole scam, they sell your number to other scammers because now you’re desperate to get your money back.”

The victim said she was contacted by someone claiming to be from Grip Capital.

“If you go and look them up, there is something like that, but it’s not an investment thing, so they can’t actually recover your money,” she said.

This is a typical tactic these cons employ. They use the names of real businesses and people you can find on LinkedIn, so anyone who does a basic search might be convinced.

“Now these scammers tell you they can recover your money, and your name came up on this list that was defrauded. So now they want to help you get your money back — but first, you need to pay them an amount.”

The victim said she was desperate, and they “only” asked for R3,500, so she paid them. Of course, it was just another scam.

“I’m a very well educated person. I never ever thought that I would ever fall for something like that — but they are brilliant manipulators,” the victim said.

“Now, thinking back I, do see that there were signs, but the way they manoeuvred around it and manipulated you into it…

“And then you’re in the situation, there’s no out, and you either have to give them what they want, or you don’t get your money back.”

She also said that scammers like these rely on people not knowing how they perpetrate their schemes because no one talks about it.

“The problem is people don’t come forward because they are ashamed. I have been ashamed for almost a year now. It’s been ten months — this happened just before Christmas last year.”

Artists Against 419 (AA419), a well-known international volunteer group dedicated to identifying and shutting down scam websites, previously told MyBroadband that recruitment scams are a big problem in South Africa.

Besides tricking people desperate for work out of money, the fake followers and reviews these scams solicit negatively impact the reputations of the companies and creators they select for tasks.

The businesses and individuals they impersonate can also harm the reputations of the actual organisations and people if victims don’t realise they were scammed by fraudsters.

MyBroadband previously spoke to a hotel whose Google reviews were targeted like this, and people had posted online that they were buying fake five-star ratings.

The hotel owner responded to a post claiming they were buying positive reviews, denying the allegation and requesting further details.

However, they never received feedback from the consumer, who had likely been targeted by a recruitment scammer.

The hotel only learned what was happening when MyBroadband followed up after receiving a tip from a reader.

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