I was contacted by a scammer on WhatsApp claiming to represent Hays recruitment and offering me an online job vaguely connected with SEO and apps. I behaved like an idiot and sent moronic replies to test her resolve. 😆
Whenever there’s a crisis, scammers are among the first to take advantage of the vulnerability felt by people facing or already experiencing terrible financial situations.
During COVID, for example, we saw an uptick in romance scammers on Tinder looking to capitalize on desperate loneliness and going on to be rather successful in their goal of emptying bank accounts worldwide. 😷
Furthermore, delving deep into the murky underworld of Hong Kong WhatsApp scammers revealed an entire economy around people pretending to help investment fraud victims recover their funds. 😶
As more misery sweeps the world, fraudsters are once again demonstrating their ability to mastermind unconscionable and manipulative criminal schemes. My account of this fake job scammer is but one of hundreds like it.
Fake Online App Review and Rating Job
Several individuals messaged me on WhatsApp offering work-from-home employment based loosely around SEO and apps. It was related to writing reviews and upvoting online software products. Apparently, I could make as much money as I wanted, depending on how much time and effort I put in.
Now, I have worked online on something similar in the past (rating Google search queries) so the concept is not unprecedented, and paid Chinese fake click/upvote farms absolutely do exist, but the manner in which I was contacted was suspicious. And amateur.
Naturally, some cursory Googling revealed plenty of anecdotes on run-ins with recruitment scammers. I’m curious to know if anyone has actually fallen for this because it seems most people delete, block and move on. 🤔
Key Characteristics of Fake WhatsApp Job Ads
This scammer used the name “Joyce”. The dense paragraphs of copy/paste fake technical job description jibber jabber she unloaded on me were scattered among tedious, insincere pleasantries barely disguising a planned sequence of events obviously designed to result in a dodgy online transaction. I hate these people.
If this thing operates anything like the investment scams, you can bet any supposed job “earnings” would be stored on some website which you would need to pay “taxes” on in order to withdraw. Robbed and ghosted! 🤑
A few key points on Joyce:
- She was using a phone number with a UK country code
- She claimed to work for Hays Recruitment
- She sent a short recorded voice message
- She refused a voice call
So, did this person’s plan to deceive me succeed? Nope!
I did what anyone does when they want to generate cheap comedy material: I wasted her time, played the fool, and strung her along until one of us either got bored or turned nasty.
Fake Job WhatsApp Conversation: Joyce Vs. Darren
Joyce: “Hello! I’m Joyce, I got your number from recruiting form Hays Recruitment.”
Darren: “Please proceed in explaining how I may unlock my potential with the keys to success and look to the future in achieving my dreams!”
Read WhatsApp conversation as .PDF
Joyce eventually stopped responding to my replies. Days later, I received another message from another stranger claiming to be hiring for a job I also had never heard of and also don’t care about.
And on it goes…
More Exhausting/Depressing Scam B.S. People Have to Deal With…
⚠️ Scam Poetry: The Time I Was Recruited to the Cult of Amway
🏄🏻♀️ Exposed: The Chinese Investment Fraud “Recovery” Scammer Deceiving Victims
💋 Chinese Tinder Profiles Are Using Photos of Pretty Girls to Scam “Investors”
🔑 How Safe Is Your Password from the $450 Billion Cybercrime Industry?
💀 Privacy and Data Protection Is a Matter of Life and Death
🤥 Magazine Ad Scam: Rogues Impersonate Crime Prevention Officers
🤥 Magazine Ad Scam: Bogus Children’s Cancer Charity Misleading Small Businesses
💳 Stolen Credit Card Email Scam Targets Small Businesses and Service Providers
🤥 Warning: Dubious Web Industry “Regulator” Selling Questionable Business Leads
Hilarious! I loved that she finally gave up after tolerating all that. At least you kept her from scamming poor sucker who had no clue it was a scam. Makes me wonder though if by engaging with them as much as you do your just helping them to get smarter. training the AI so it can advance kinda thing.
Great job exposing this fake job scam targeting small businesses! Your article serves as a reminder to always verify and stay cautious when dealing with recruitment processes.
Good God Darren, you should become a private investigator! You remind me of that guy on Youtube who tracks down the scammers and toys with them. My husband received something similar to this scam and we think his number was scraped from a business directory.
You should chek out Jim Browings YT channel. He screws with them for hours and hacks their computers and camera
What a story! Terrible how they prey on the vulnerable.
The other day, I got a job offer out of the blue from a lady from District Recruitment. Whether it was genuinely from that company I don’t know. Then the next day, another woman contacted me supposedly from Mamba agency SEO, saying that I could work for just 30 to 60 minutes a day for 700 US dollars after just 5 days, working from home. The work was supposed to be just optimizing and increasing their clients’ profiling.
The work doesn’t appear to involve any specialised skills. I also needed to fill in a brief online form and create a password. The lady is supposed giving me training and claims I could earn some “commission” from that.
Is this whole thing likely to be fake and a scam?
Seems that scam baiting is a societal good we can all agree needs to be done! Help Thy Neighbor
Thanks for the heads up! It’s unfortunate that scammers are preying on job seekers. Staying vigilant and doing thorough research before engaging with any online recruitment offers is crucial. Appreciate you shedding light on this issue to protect others from falling victim to such scams.
It’s alarming to see how scammers exploit technology to prey on unsuspecting individuals, highlighting the importance of vigilance and caution when engaging in online job searches. This cautionary tale serves as a stark reminder for job seekers to verify the authenticity of job offers and communication channels to avoid falling victim to such fraudulent schemes.
Thanks for the heads up! It’s unfortunate that scammers are preying on job seekers.