- National Fraud Helpline has seen increase in fake jobs scam
- Mihaela Lazar lost nearly £4,000 after answering Facebook ad
- People looking for extra Xmas cash warned to be careful.
- Fraudsters often initially send money but then ask for more back.
National Fraud Helpline has issued a warning to people who are looking to make some extra Christmas money not to fall for working from home online job scams.
We are coming across an increasing number of fraud victims who have lost money after signing up to fake jobs through social media platforms.
Once victims have started the work-from-home job they are asked to deposit money to release their wages. The wages or commissions are then not paid, often leaving victims thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Our warning was picked up by a host of media outlets including The Sun and Yahoo News.
Martin Richardson, senior partner at National Fraud Helpline, a trading name of Richardson Hartley Law, said: ‘The cost-of-living crisis combined with people needing extra cash for Christmas creates the perfect hunting ground for scammers.
‘Whenever people are desperate fraudsters try to take advantage. These out-of-the-blue job offers through social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook seem to be on the rise. They will often lure people in by initially paying them a small sum before saying they need to deposit money to release their wages.’
One of the most common online job scams, according to National Fraud Helpline solicitors, involves scammers claiming that people can earn thousands of pounds at home by reviewing products.
We are currently helping mum-of-one Mihaela Lazar, 34, who says she was left penniless when fraudsters conned her out of nearly £4,000 in a work-from-home online scam.
The hotel receptionist from Andover, Hampshire, was looking to earn extra money when she saw an advert on Facebook offering a chance to earn cash working online.
She replied to the ad and signed up to work as a ‘product analyst’, posting reviews of products online.
But Mihaela’s dreams of working from home quickly unravelled.
Within a few days, she had paid £3,789 in a series of ‘investments’ against future commission that never materialised.
When she realised it was a scam, she said she felt ‘really down, really upset, and really angry with myself’.
She added: ‘It was our earnings, our savings, my husband’s, everyone’s. I put my family in a situation where we don’t have any money, and we are behind with the bills, the council tax, the electricity.’
Mihaela’s ordeal started on October 10, this year, after answering the Facebook adverts and then receiving a WhatsApp message advising her that she could start work reviewing up to 38 products, like televisions and fridges, a day.
She was told she would earn commission for each review and, for the first couple of days, she could see the money building up in her account.
‘At the beginning I didn’t trust it, I thought it couldn’t be right, because I had never used these products, so it was a little bit weird,’ she said. ‘But when I asked them to transfer £105 to my bank account, I received the money, and that made me think this must be real.’
At this point, she hadn’t deposited any money into her work account, but then they started asking for payments up front, which would be more than covered by the future commission earned.
Mihaela explained: ‘They said it was like an investment. If I had, let’s say, £800 in my account, and I needed to review a product costing £1,000, I would need to pay them £200 to review the product and get the commission, which was quite a high amount.’
Mihaela started to send money from her Lloyds Bank account and a Revolut account, to accounts held by Remitly and crypto.com.
She was encouraged by discussions in a WhatsApp group chat, where ‘colleagues’ would share screenshots of their earnings. A very common tactic, according to National Farud Helpline.
On the fifth day, Mihaela knew something was wrong when she saw that her account had accumulated £22,000, and her ‘agent’ asked her for £8,000 to review a product costing £30,000.
‘I realised then those big numbers cannot be real, and it was a scam,’ she said.
National Fraud Helpline has applied to get Mihaela’s money bank from her banks who from October 7, this year, are obliged to refund fraud victims unless they have been ‘grossly negligent’.
So far, the law firm has recovered £1,025, plus interest for Mihaela, from Lloyds bank.
Mr Richardson said: ‘Mihaela had lots of unusual activity on her bank account that we believe the banks should have spotted. We are pleased Lloyds has issued a prompt refund.’
Have you lost money to a working from home scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.
Click here for more informaion on how to spot Working From Home Fake Job Scams.