- Dad Lost £15,000 in Movie Reviews Scam
- Victim borrowed £10,000 from friends
- National Fraud Helpline solicitors recovered all of the lost funds
- Law has released images of the scam to warn others.
An Essex father-of-three lost more than £15,000 to a clever job scam in which he was asked to review films.
The victim, who wants to remain anonymous, said he felt physically sick when he realised he had been scammed as he had borrowed £10,000 from friends to help fund the venture.
The dad, from Grays, ploughed the money into a fake ‘Google Movie’ platform after seeing an advert on Facebook to earn extra cash.
Initially, the man who is in his 50s, received two small payments for completing simple online tasks, which made the ‘job’ seem believable.
But things quickly unravelled over a 10-day period in May when the fraudsters started asking him for ever-increasing payments, which he was told would be returned along with commission payments for the tasks.
When the payments failed to materialise and he was asked for £25,000 to complete the final task, he knew he had been conned.
“I was sick,” he said. “If it was all my own money I’d feel sick, but this was not my money.
“I lost 5kg in two weeks, and I had sleepless nights. I had lost hope of ever getting my money back.”
Thankfully, solicitors from National Fraud Helpline were able to recover all his money, plus interest, from his bank, Monzo, which failed to query any of 17 payments to a dozen different foreign bank accounts over a 10-day period.
Banks have obligations from regulators to help protect their customers from fraud.
National Fraud Helpline solicitors released images from the scam in the hope it prevents more people from falling victim.
Leo McGowan, a lawyer at National Fraud Helpline solicitors, said: “This was a very clever and believable scam.
“The scammers have jumped on the credibility of the Google brand to make the so-called job opportunity seem real.
“By releasing some of the screenshots of the fraud we hope that it will act as a warning to others that this is a fake job scam.
“We were delighted that we were able to retrieve all of the money for our client.”
Speaking about hearing the news that his money had been recovered, the victim said: “I cried tears of joy and relief because this was money I’d written off. It was a shock, and so wonderful. It boosted me, and as soon as I got the money I started paying people back.”
His nightmare began in May, when he saw the advert to try to earn some extra money to help with the cost of living.
After clicking through from the advert, he was connected to a WhatsApp group and told he could earn a daily commission of between £100 and £150 by completing “easy tasks”.
The ‘job’ consisted of clicking on movie titles in sets of 29, with three sets of 29 completing a day’s work.
In each set, ‘special tickets’ would appear that required the victim to make a payment in return for earning commission.
He would be given a foreign bank account to pay the money into, and was then given a link to complete the task.
“I asked ‘where’s the catch?’” he said, “but the lady said there was no catch.”
Sure enough, when he paid £50 for his first ‘special ticket’, he received £120 back – his £50 plus £70 commission. He also received £180 in payment for his second ‘special ticket’.
A separate group on messaging platform Telegram was full of people allegedly also completing the tasks chatting about how great it was.
So despite some reservations, he believed he was onto a good thing.
“In the back of my mind it was there, but when you look at the money you are going to get out, I thought I might be lucky, and it’s greed that gets you,” he said.
On his next set of tasks, the fraudsters asked for £10,500 for a ‘special ticket’.
“I didn’t expect it to be that high, and I had used up all my money,” he said, forced to borrow from friends and family.
“I assured them I could pay them back in 24 hours. They had confidence in me, they gave me their mortgage money, and one colleague borrowed £4,000 himself from loan sharks, with £50 a day interest. He ended up owing £3,000.”
By now his account on the fake ‘Google Movie’ platform showed a balance of £31,000 for his total investment of £15,387.
But rather than getting paid his money back, plus the commission, the man received another ‘special ticket’, which would this time cost £25,000.
“I told them I couldn’t pay that, and an operations manager came back and said they could reduce it to £12,500,” he said. “But I thought ‘no, this is a scam’, so I told them to get lost and asked for my money back. They said I couldn’t until I had finished the task.”
He reported the scam to Monzo, who refused to refund his money until contacted by National Fraud Helpline solicitors.
The story has appeared in the media as a warning to others about the movie reviews scam: Devastated south Essex dad lost over £15k to clever ‘Google Movie’ review scam
Have you lost money to a movie reviews scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.
