Tag Archives: Job

Nurse Lost RM380K After Pressing Instagram ‘Like’ Button?!

Did a Malaysian nurse lose RM380,000 after pressing the Instagram Like button?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Nurse Lost RM380K After Pressing Instagram Like Button!

People are sharing an article which claims that a Malaysian nurse lost RM380,000 after pressing the Like button in Instagram for RM5 commissions! Here is an excerpt from the article:

M’sian Nurse Loses RM380K After Pressing Instagram ‘Like’ Button For RM5 Commission

Too late to unlike

Recently, a nurse supervisor fell victim to an online part-time job scam and lost a staggering RM387,035 after she was tricked into thinking she could enjoy high earnings from it.

M’sian nurse loses RM380K after pressing Instagram ‘like’ button

According to a statement by Pahang police chief Datuk Seri Yahaya Othman, he said the 46-year-old victim received a message through WhatsApp offering her a part-time job on September 11.

The scammer then told her that she had to do was to simply press the ‘like’ button on Instagram and earn RM5 in commission for each task she completed.

Completely beguiled, the victim proceeded to accomplish five tasks and received a commission totaling RM25.

“She was then presented with a prepaid assignment which involved making a payment beforehand and was promised of greater profits.

“After making 36 transactions to 21 bank accounts amounting to RM387,035 across 13 days starting from Sept 11, the victim finally realised she had been deceived,” he said.

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Nurse Did Not Lose RM380K After Pressing Instagram Like Button!

First of all, I would like to applaud the website for writing about job scams, but that’s really a misleading title.

Unfortunately, many people don’t read beyond the headlines. People are even asking if they will get “hacked” like the nurse if they like Instagram posts!

The truth is – the Malaysian nurse did not lose RM380,000 because she pressed on the Like button in Instagram. In fact, Instagram and its Like button have nothing to do with the actual scam!

Social Media Jobs Are An Easy Lure

As I have earlier written on how fake job syndicates operate, the “job” and “platform” are not important. These scammers generally offer social media jobs, because that’s what most people already use, so it’s easy to hook victims.

These syndicates will offer quick and easy tasks to do on social media, for example – liking Instagram photos and Facebook posts. Other (non-social media) tasks include liking YouTube videos and/or subscribing to YouTube channels, or even making comments on businesses in Google Maps.

Whether the job is on Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Google Maps, etc. is irrelevant. The first few “jobs” you are given are the bait. You will be paid for those simple tasks, like RM5 for liking an Instagram post, or RM10 for subscribing to a YouTube channel. Such an easy way to make money!

Paying For Jobs Is The Scam!

After you get the first payment, you will be asked to participate in a “prepaid job”. All you have to do is pay a “deposit” for the opportunity to make a lot of money in high-paying “jobs”.

At this point, you may feel that this is a genuine side job opportunity. After all, they paid you for the earlier jobs, didn’t they? Real scammers wouldn’t pay their victims, right? WRONG!

Once you make that first deposit, you are “hooked”. The scammers will not let you withdraw the money, but insist that you must continue with the next “prepaid job”, which would require another deposit. Then, you will be asked to pay again to participate in another “prepaid task”, and so on.

On paper, you appear to be earning a lot of money, but you won’t be able to withdraw any of that money. By the time you realise it’s a scam, you would have lost a LOT of money. That is the scam, not pressing on the Instagram Like button.

Trying To Recover The Money Is The Scam!

In the nurse’s case, she fell for their trap to participate in the “prepaid assignment”. She ended up making 36 transactions worth RM387,000 to 21 different bank accounts over 13 days! She not only emptied her savings, she even loaned money from her friends and family members!

Why would any victim do that? Simple – the more money you invest in this fake job offer, the more desperate you will be to recover the money you “invested” and “earned”. To quit would mean losing everything, so you will feel that you have “no choice” but to continue.

To help you make that decision to “stick with the programme”, the syndicate have fake users in their Telegram group continuously posting bank deposit screenshots, while claiming that they just received their earnings.

The truth is – any money you send to their mule accounts will be quickly transferred to the scammers’ account. You will never see the money again.

As one student shared, he lost over RM22,000 in just two days, because he was so engrossed in trying to get back the money he “invested” earlier:

There’s one trick that this scammer is using. He let me start with a small investment, then proceed with stages.

They force me to continue because I want to rescue the money that I put in in the previous task. So it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Just like that, two days, RM22300, gone.

Again, I’m glad to see more publicity about fake job scams. But it is important that YOU understand that the scam does not involve the pressing of the Like button in Instagram, or Facebook, or YouTube, or any other online platform.

This is ultimately just another case of a fake job scam. In this nurse’s case, the scammers used the simple job of liking Instagram posts as the lure, but it will be different for other victims. These scammers will use any convenient platform to give you simple jobs to trick you into falling for their scam.

Just remember – there is no such thing as easy social media jobs. Even unscrupulous social media promoters do not need to pay anyone to like a post, or follow someone. They simply use bots (automated software)!

Don’t fall for such fake job scams. No matter how enticing the offer is – NEVER pay for any job.

Please SHARE this article out, and WARN your family and friends!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Media Prima / Nielsen Fake Job Scam Alert!

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Please watch out for the Media Prima Digital / Nielsen fake job scam! Don’t forget to warn your family and friends!

Media Prima / Nielsen Job Scam : How They Reel You In…

Scammers are targeting people through WhatsApp, offering an easy way to make extra money through a part-time job you can do online.

I am Shirley , a permanent employee at Media Prima Digital Company in the recruitment department. The HR department sent me this number and asked me to contact you to get you to a job opportunity.

I just want to share some work-from-home freelance job information offer .You don’t have to spend a lot of time on the job.I can explain if you are interested

The job appears to be very simple – just use your Instagram account to follow Media Prima Digital’s brand partners, to boost their follower count and exposure.

Our job is to use Instagram to follow our various partner brands and work with Malaysian brand influencers to increase their exposure. We hire freelancers to work with the hope of earning extra income every day.

You don’t have to do any marketing for the brand, you just have to subscribe Brand. The salary will be paid daily using TnG or Bank transfer.

Recommended : How Fake Job Syndicates Operate!

Best of all, the scammers are promising that you can make easy money doing nothing more than help Media Prima Digital boost their brand partners on Instagram…

This job is like freelancing. You can do it from anywhere and anytime if you can use social media. RM 110-550 per day if you can do it energetically without even a little worry. You can earn up to RM 3,300-16,500 per month.

Wow! That’s more than what many people earn in Malaysia, so why the heck not, right? Just use Instagram to help big brands “cheat” on their follower counts. Unethical, but not illegal, right? And easy money to make.

The scammer will let you try one or two tasks to show you just how easy it is to make quick money. Wow – you can earn RM10 just by following one Instagram account? Easy!

Recommended : How To Block Facebook Ads + Pay Scammers!

Media Prima / Nielsen Job Scam Runs On Telegram

To get paid, the scammer hands you over to the actual fake job syndicate on Telegram…

Why Telegram? Telegram is popular with scammers because it not only offers end-to-end encryption, it won’t expose their actual telephone numbers.

Go to telegram and add to our receptionist. Use this username @AD or you can easily add her using this Link. https://t.me/KL999654

After successfully adding her send her a message. (I’m a new member.) code: JZ 450032 (ML-OS)Please send me a screenshot to confirm after sending code message to her.

She will invite you to join our working group where you can accomplish many tasks and earn more salary.

Recommended : Watch Out For Telegram Phishing Attack!

This “receptionist” will quickly pay you the RM10 (the bait), to “prove” that this is a genuine operation. She will then explain what you need to do to earn RM200 to RM300 a day. That’s more than what most people make in a day!

The finance department is sending money to you, please inform me when you receive it! Now let me give you a detailed description of our part-time work

The main job is to help Instagram users follow their page. You get RM2 for completing one task. RM80+ commission per day depending on your hours. The daily income is between RM 200 and RM 300, as long as you have enough time to do it, you can join

You will get RM2-RM18 commission for completing the task and an additional RM80 salary, which will be calculated based on your working hours today, ending at 8pm

Complete a task for RM2, accumulate RM10 and you can automatically receive commission. The more tasks you do, the more commissions you earn and the higher your salary

Update the task every 20 minutes and send me screenshots when you’re done so I know how much you’ve accomplished. The timeout task has expired and does not need to be completed. Do the latest task in the group

Only RM2 per task? But okay, they are also offering a daily commission. You work it out, and decide – what the heck, you can still get a decent sum every day. So you agree to participate.

After you chug along, accumulating a small but nice sum over several hours, they hit you with the scam… you have to invest your money for the next job.

Subscribe to Tasks:
In order to thank you for your support to our company we hereby announce the welfare task and strive for the quota for everyone
Subscription Rule (2-4 orders) This task is based on market demand, we are recruiting customers to transfer subscription to increase transaction flow.
Increase market turnover. 5 to 10 minutes to complete the task, such as subscribe RM100, get RM130, 30% profit.
===========================
MYR 100 Cash back MYR 130 (Newbie subscription)
MYR 200 Cash back MYR 260
MYR 300 Cash back MYR 390
MYR 600 Cash back MYR 780
MYR 1000 Cashback MYR 1300

This is when your receptionist will pressure you into at least taking the “newbie subscription” of “just RM100”. She will assure you that you will instantly get RM30 profit.

In the meantime, people in the Telegram group will publicly announce that they are buying subscriptions of RM300, RM600, etc. These are likely just accounts run by the scammers.

If you hesitate, the receptionist will tell you that you cannot proceed without subscribing to this task. If you refuse, you will also lose the money you earned earlier. This is how they trap you.

If you jump right into it, the group will likely pay you the first time, to tempt you into investing more the next time around. That’s when they take your money for good.

Don’t think that you can’t really lose much on such fake job scams. One university student recently explained how he lost over RM22,000 in a similar job scam.

There’s one trick that this scammer is using. He let me start with a small investment, then proceed with stages. They force me to continue because I want to rescue the money that I put in in the previous task. So it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

So please AVOID such online job offers, and help us fight these scammers – SHARE this article out, and WARN your family and friends!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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How A University Student Lost RM22K In Online Job Scam!

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Find out how a university student just lost over RM22,000 in an online job scam!

Please SHARE this article to warn your family and friends to avoid such online job scams!

Online Job Scam Are Targeting The Poor + Desperate!

Online job scams have been around for a long, long time. But fake job syndicates have become more active recently, probably because more people are getting laid off, and inflation is eating into our money.

Online job scams come in a variety of ways, but most commonly, you get unsolicited messages through WhatsApp or iMessage, offering you the opportunity to make a lot of money through part-time work, in the comfort of your own home.

This is especially appealing to people who are currently jobless and desperate. Or in this recent case – a university student who is just starting out in life.

I am Shirley , a permanent employee at XXXX Company in the recruitment department. The HR department sent me this number and asked me to contact you to get you to a job opportunity.

Hello! I am Miss Aisyah Binte Ahmed, from The Recruitment Dept. at YYYY Digital, Malaysia. Our company is hiring part-time and full-time online Employees. Can I briefly share the details with you?

How A University Student Lost RM22K In Online Job Scam!

I had earlier written about how fake job syndicates cheat people of their hard-earned money, but I didn’t realise that these scammers are also targeting university students!

A university student recently shared how he quickly lost over RM20,000 to an online job scam, despite being warned that it could be a scam!

How They Reel The Student In…

These online job scams always start by offering their victims an EASY way to make A LOT of money!

It all started two days ago, when an unknown person asked me if I’m interested in a part time job. I usually don’t decline offers like this because I’m also a student looking for internship or job opportunities.

He gave me simple tasks, like subscribing to YouTube channels and get RM10 for each subscription. I was interested as money did really go to my account.

Then, I was added into a group. They would give these free tasks of subscribing to YouTube channels.

These scammers also know that people are now wary of scams, and will always demonstrate their willingness to pay… at least in the beginning.

And occasionally will provide merchant tasks throughout the day, which you bank in a certain amount of money to them, which was said to help improve crypto merchant’s reputation or some sort, then they’ll return you a good amount of earnings after the task is completed. It takes around half an hour to do so. So for these two days I earned around RM500.

This is how the scammers establish trust with their victims, and convince them to “invest” to get even more money!

Recommended : Watch Out For Telegram Phishing Attack!

The Scam Happens Very Quickly

The “merchant tasks” is when they start scamming you, and the scam occurs very quickly. You may think that you’re earning a lot of money, but you will never see a cent of it.

So here’s where the fishing begins. A merchant task has started. A rule was stated that I must complete all the tasks given or I will not get the money that I banked in before.

It doesn’t matter how little you “invest” in this “merchant task” scheme. Once you are in, they will quickly use your “earnings” to force you to keep paying them!

I chose the least risk package, give RM300 to get RM360. Then, I was required to continue the next task. Same, I chose the smallest amount RM2000 to get RM2600. Again, need to continue the next task, I chose the smallest RM5000 to get RM7000. Then, RM15000 to get RM19500.

Then, RM40000 to get RM52000. At this point, I still haven’t realize it’s a scam. All I’m focussed on is I need to take back the money that I banked in, so I’m just thinking about completing the tasks given.

By The Time He Realised… It Was TOO LATE!

Because the university student was so engrossed in getting back the money he “invested” earlier, he didn’t realise that he was giving the scammers more and more money… until it was much too late.

Unfortunately, by the time the university student realised his mistake, it was much too late… He had already lost over RM22K!

At that time, I have not enough money in my bank to fork out RM40k. So I panic and find my friend to lend me some money.

Luckily my friend as a sideliner noticed that this is a scam and stopped me. I woke up finding that evervthing was too late. Just like that, two days, RM22300, gone.

Scammers caught on CCTV by hacker

Many People In The Group Are Scammers

As the university student later realised, many of the people in the group are part of the online job scam syndicate. Their job is to give the victims the perception that this is a legitimate job with many people participating.

During merchant tasks, I’m asked to leave the big group and will be joining a small group of 3-4 members. One of the scary parts in this operation after I realize it’s a scam is that, all the group members in the group are actually controlled by the same person.

Out of the 4 members, two might be playing rich vips who will play the highest package, pressuring you to play with more money, the other person looks like a newcomer like me and plays along with me, choosing the lowest package.

Precautions Were Useless

The university student was actually warned by his parents that it could be a scam. He even prepared for the possibility he could be scammed:

Some Precautions | Made While Attempting This:

I was being very careful with this. I shared with my parents on the first night. My parents did warned me about it being a scam, but didn’t stop me from it since I’m earning something. They just ask me to be extra cautious.

I have two bank accounts, so I moved most of my savings such that I have a “small” account and a “big” account, to prevent losses if anything goes wrong.

I also created a new chat account with another phone number solely for this “part time job”. I also made a plan and promise to only invest my earnings, so I cannot touch my savings.

But as German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke once said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy“, and the student’s precaution was useless when he got “emotionally invested” in getting his money back, and ended up taking out all of his saving from the “big account”!

I believe we always read about news of scams in Malaysia, asking why are they so dumb, why they fall into these type of scams. Until I’m in their shoes. I was being very cautious taking the above steps and always remind myself to not be greedy, play only the least risk.

The worse part is, when I’m within that situation and cannot think straight. I even use my savings from my “big” account, just because I want to rescue the money I put in.

Recommended : How To Block Facebook Ads + Pay Scammers!

The university student is now “emotionally depressed” and “thinking about suicide” over the loss of so much money. But do the scammers care? No, they couldn’t care less if people commit suicide over the loss of their hard-earned money.

He has also contacted his bank fraud hotline, and lodged a police report. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to ever recover any of the money he lost. But I hope he understands that his life matters more to his family than money, and he can always make back the money as long as he lives.

Please SHARE this article out, and WARN your family and friends!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

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Scam Alert : How Fake Job Syndicates Operate!

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Find out how fake job syndicates operate, and how they reel you into their scams, and cheat YOU of your hard-earned money!

Make sure you SHARE this article, to warn your family and friends to avoid the fake job scams!

Fake Job Scams : What Are They?

Fake job scams have been around for a long, long time. But fake job syndicates have become more active recently, probably because more people are getting laid off, and inflation is eating into our money.

Fake job scams come in a variety of ways, but most commonly, you get unsolicited messages through WhatsApp or iMessage, offering you the opportunity to make a lot of money through part-time work, in the comfort of your own home.

Good day YouTubers!! This is Alexa from Youtube Entertainment. We invite you to participate in our event by liking and subscribing to our channel and we will give you XXX. Please reply “YES” if you are interested. Thank you.

Hi, I’m the recruitment manager of XYZ company. XYZ invites you to do regular work at home.

You can easily earn [large amounts of money] with your mobile phone every day, and your salary will be settled on the same day.

Please add my WhatsApp to sign up. The number of places is limited, only for today.

Hey! You have been selected for a job. Daily salary XXXX to YYYYY. WhatsApp [number removed]. Reply YES to apply.

Recommended : How To Block Facebook Ads + Pay Scammers!

Scam Alert : How Fake Job Syndicates Operate!

I personally have received many of such fake job offers, and have always ignored them. But when I saw a sudden surge of fake job offers, I decided to look into it. I also wanted to find out how they worked.

So I took a dive into two different fake job scams last week, and here was what I found…

How They Reel Their Victims In

It all starts with scammers tasked with “fishing” for victims. They will try to contact you by email, Facebook Messenger, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, or iMessage. Regardless of the method, the hook is simple – we are offering you an EASY way to make A LOT of money!

Once you are suitably impressed, these “fishing” scammers will offer you a simple task to show you just how easy it is to make a lot of money. To entice me, the two scammers offered me a pretty good sum of money for a very simple task:

Syndicate A : Subscribe to this YouTube channel, and send me the screenshot to receive XXXX.

Syndicate B : Like this YouTube video, and send me the screenshot to receive YYYY.

Recommended : Watch Out For Telegram Phishing Attack!

The Fishing Scammer Hands You Over To The Syndicate

After you complete that task, the fishing scammer then hands you off to the actual fake job syndicate, ostensibly for payment. You are asked to contact the company secretary / account manager on Telegram, with a “payment code”.

From what I surmise, the “payment code” is actually the fishing scammer’s referral code – they get paid for every victim they send the syndicate.

This will be your last contact with these fishing scammers. They are off to reel in more victims!

Syndicate Baits You With Payment

The syndicate secretary / account manager will ask you to register your details with them, but they are not too particular with any details, except for your phone number. If you give them the fake number, they will know because they will check with the fishing scammer using their referral code. But feel free to give them other fake details – they won’t care.

The fake job syndicate will then send you the payment for that “test” job, using a mule account. If you ask them why they are sending you the money through a different company account or even a random person’s account, they will tell you that they have many bank accounts because of daily transaction limits.

Syndicate Baits You With Simple Tasks

The syndicate will then add you to their Telegram channel offering multiple tasks per day. Instead of YouTube channels or videos, you are tasked to very simple tasks like:

open a link to a product page on an online shopping platform
take a screenshot of that product page
post that screenshot to the Telegram group
share that screenshot with your syndicate agent

You will breeze through the first three tasks easily, and the fake job syndicate will pay you promptly.

Fantastic, isn’t it? What could go wrong? After all, there are hundreds of other people participating in the same tasks, and getting paid!

Syndicate Tempts You With Pay To Earn Scam

At this point, you have done some calculations, and realise that you can easily make good money every day doing these simple tasks.

That’s when the fake job syndicate offers you the opportunity to make some serious cash. But there’s one catch – you need to PAY them to get access to jobs with serious money.

For every dollar you prepay, the fake job syndicate promises that you will get that back PLUS 10% to 30%, within minutes. Just in case you are worried about losing your money, hey, they are offering a refund. Honest!

And how can they offer you so much money for so little work? The syndicate throws in the magic word – cryptocurrency! Of course! That’s the only way anyone can make tons of money easily, with both eyes closed!

Syndicate Pressurises You With Bots

To convince you that they are legit, you will see many people posting screenshots of their payments to the Telegram group. They will also publicly announce how much they are investing. In some cases, they also post excitedly about how much money they already made, and how much they plan to make today.

This is just a charade to make you believe that people are really making money through this scheme. Most of these “participants” appear to be bot accounts, with a few sock puppet accounts. If you monitor these accounts over time, you will see them change names. I even spotted one of these fake participants (mercado livre in the screenshot above) become the Telegram group admin!

The genuine victims are those asking questions in the group like “We have to prepay?” But oddly enough, no one else in the group (except the Telegram group admin) will respond. That’s not how real people behave.

And if you check their receipts, you will notice some discrepancies in their receipts, which suggest that they were edited:

transfers within the same bank were labelled as transfers “to other banks”.
account numbers are too short / long for that particular bank

The others are possibly genuine receipts (by people who were scammed earlier), with their dates and times changed.

Once You Pay, It’s Game Over

I managed to get in touch with two victims of this scam, who claimed that once they deposited the prepaid amount, they were ghosted and removed from the Telegram group.

So that appears to be the scam – they bait you with a bit of money, until you are convinced that they are real. Then once you prepay them for the “big job”, they dump you right away.

Your assigned syndicate agent will block you, and you will get kicked off the Telegram group, which often disappears after scamming a few victims. Often, you will find your Telegram conversations with them mysteriously deleted. By then, it’s much too late – you have already lost your money.

To ensure they don’t lose money, they will price the introductory offer low enough to entice victims, but high enough to cover their costs and then some. But they will inevitably score some big fish, which is why the fake job scam persists.

Now that you know how the fake job scam works, please DO NOT get trapped into it! NEVER pay to get a job. It is just a scam!

Please SHARE this article out, and WARN your family and friends!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Fact Check | Cybersecurity | Tech ARP

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!