They also told him that his account would be frozen unless he completed a certain number of transactions. The most expensive item offered to him was a Rolex watch costing S$80,000.Īt this point, the company also started promising him more commissions and bonuses if he could put in more money. He said that each transaction averaged about S$10 at first, then the goods became appliances like refrigerators, which could cost hundreds. He become convinced it was real when he received his first payment of S$1,670 from the transactions he completed for the company. The payments were sent to various bank accounts which she claimed were the merchants, then the company paid Chris back the amount paid for the goods as well as a commission.ĭorris then asked him to start an account and put in money. The purchases they sent to him to “complete” also became more and more expensive.Īs the other people in the chat group asked questions, chatted casually about their lives and sent screenshots of funds that they had purportedly earned from this gig, he started to get sucked in. He was still hesitant, but Dorris offered to let him use her account and her funds to “buy” goods at first. He also called the firm but no one picked up.
“So I thought, they’re also just like me … they actually sent photos of their daily lives.”īesides sharing tips about the part-time job, the group members also sent food photos, bantered and joked in the chat shown to CNA.Ĭhris said that he Googled the company and it seemed like a legitimate firm with a professional looking website. “They will keep on prompting the group, saying: ‘Is this a scam?’” he said. But at the time, he thought they were people who wanted to make some money on the side, like him. The scammer, who called herself Dorris, added him to a WhatsApp group with 10 other people who Chris now thinks are scammers like her, or other victims. On Nov 18, Chris was offered a job “buying” goods online in order to boost the sales and ratings of e-commerce merchants. He now regrets that spur-of-the-moment decision, after losing more than S$300,000 of his and his mother’s savings over just five days in November last year. SINGAPORE: Chris was sceptical at first when he received a WhatsApp message about an easy part-time job that could earn him a few hundred dollars a day.īut the 23-year-old, who did not want to use his real name, thought that he was tech savvy enough not to be phished or tricked by scammers, so he decided to find out more.
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