I was scammed of £16k in new Whatsapp job ruse: We reveal the recruitment scam that has arrived from the US...
- Alice* signed up to job websites to make some extra money for her family
- Scammers moonlighted as legitimate companies to gain trust
- Now she is bankrupt and warns that there are more scammers out there
A woman has been left on the verge of bankruptcy after fraudsters tricked her into starting a job online which left her thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Over the course of five days, Alice - who asked for her name to be changed - was scammed into handing over £16,500 to scammers, and has been left penniless after hoping to make a bit of extra cash.
She has spent the last few months trying to recoup the funds, but with little success, and she fears the very same fraudsters are continuing to dupe people.
![Duped: Alice thought she was starting a new part-time job but lost £16,500 to scammers](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/11/10/12/77607341-12730115-Duped_Alice_thought_she_was_starting_a_new_part_time_job_but_los-a-1_1699618372695.jpg)
Duped: Alice thought she was starting a new part-time job but lost £16,500 to scammers
In March, Alice's mother, who lives abroad, had three heart attacks in the space of 48 hours.
Alice, who feared she might lose another parent just a few years after losing her father, sent money home.
'I sent her the money and I was kind of struggling, so I looked for a part-time job to do alongside my full-time job. I was updating CVs and putting them on job websites.'
She was contacted by Mandy who claimed to be from Robert Half recruitment agency on Whatsapp and Alice did the routine checks to see if it was legitimate.
Robert Half is one of the biggest recruitment agencies in the UK, which she thought meant the job was legitimate.
She was passed onto an app development company called Indiespring, another legitimate company which counts Nokia and Highways England as clients.
Both companies have issued warnings that scammers are using their names fraudulently.
Lucy the scammer
Alice was put in touch with someone called Lucy, who claimed to work at Indiespring, via Whatsapp and was set up to work on the company's platform.
Alice still wasn't convinced at this point, though.
'I was quite sceptical but Lucy convinced me to do it. She sent me a job description, the company's address, working hours.'
Once Alice agreed to start work, she was guided through a practice run. She was shown 30 tasks and for each one completed, money would be put into her balance which she could then withdraw from.
'I didn't have to put any money in at that point… I think people would be very sceptical. Lucy said I could practice on her account.'
Alice continued to complete the tasks and saw her balance going up every time. She was able to withdraw £106 which went into her bank account.
'I thought it was good but I didn't want to do anymore. Lucy convinced me to do three more tasks to make more money.'
At this point, Alice's balance went into negative and she was told she'd need to add more money in before she could withdraw again. She was told she'd need to add money through the cryptocurrency USDT.
'You're supposed to contact customer service and they give you a crypto address.
'The tasks then show on the platform. But every time I did the tasks, my balance kept going negative. So I kept on adding more money…'
'She was meddling in my life'
Over the course of five days, Lucy and other 'employees' would contact Alice encouraging her to do more tasks and make more money.
'Lucy said she'd top up on my behalf. I thought why would she risk her money if it's a scam? She'd help and then go cold. I'd doubt it and then she'd help me again.'
At this point, Lucy was also trying to convince Alice to develop her own members because she was 'earning loads of money'.
Alice said she was 'meddling' in her life: 'She asked if I was single or if I had kids.
'She sent me a video of her in a Bentley or Rolls Royce, but I didn't see her face in the video. She'd send me pictures of her going to the gym. You could see her shoes and legs. I don't know how she did it.'
She even told Alice that they could meet up in London if they were ever there at the same time.
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'I was left with no money'
Alice went into a negative balance of around £4,000 and at that point, had ploughed about £16,000 in the platform's balance.
She started to worry, telling Lucy she could not add any more money.
'I was already maxed out - I'd borrowed from friends and family, maxed out my credit cards.
'I usually get paid on the 25th and put my whole month's salary in. I had nothing left for the month.'
Alice said her balance went into negative a few times and 'with each top up, I got more and more stuck and desperate.
'Each time they'd change their statement at the point of withdrawal, needing more and more money to top up to withdraw, or saying my account needs upgrading.
'I was added into a Whatsapp group where everyone was sharing how much they'd been able to earn and how they got stuck initially too, but it's profitable.'
Alice still couldn't access the funds and started to twig that she had been scammed.
'By the end, I was left with no money and I refused to top up and asked to let me withdraw without paying anymore. That's when everything [descended into] chaos.'
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Alice threatened to contact the company and she was told the company 'wouldn't recognise the department' and threatened to freeze her account as she'd be 'breaking the confidentiality agreement.'
Eventually she was blocked and she could not withdraw the funds.
Alice contacted the council who advised she try to find a no win no fee lawyer to take on the case.
They raised her case with both of her banks - Revolut and Wise - whose hands were tied because Alice had approved the payments, and she had used, largely untraceable, cryptocurrency.
This Is Money contacted both banks to ask what more could have been done and if there was any scope for a refund.
A spokesman for Revolut said: 'We are very sorry to hear about [Alice's] case, or any instance where our customers are targeted by ruthless and highly sophisticated criminals.
'Revolut warned [Alice] on multiple occasions about the suspicious transactions she was attempting to authorise.'
A spokesperson for Wise said: 'We are sorry that Alice has fallen victim to such an unpleasant and exploitative scam. Scammers will often pose as recruitment agents and create situations where they can target and exploit people to demand fees, whether that be for training fees, legal costs or more elaborate schemes like this.
'At Wise, we are invested in the continual fight against scams. This ranges from new technology, such as AI modelling, to features, such as warnings to customers when we spot that they might be at risk of a scam.'
More scammers out there… be warned
Alice's world has been turned upside down by what she thought would make her some extra cash.
'To be honest, I'm in the middle of bankruptcy. I'm in an IVA [individual voluntary arrangement] and I can't afford to pay for anything.
'Any money I had, I maxed out on everything. Even if I tried to make minimum payments, my incoming salary is £2,000 and my outgoings would be £3,000. I'm screwed for the next six years.
'I haven't talked to anyone about my financial issues. It's got to the point where I feel like I'm having a mental breakdown. I can't blame anyone for it but myself.'
Unfortunately, the scamming and spamming hasn't stopped.
Alice still receives messages from different companies using the same playbook.
She is messaged by a recruiter who puts her in touch with a company who promises to give her a job.
She has often interacted with these scammers: 'I wanted to see what they were going to do. I knew I wasn't going to fall for it again. They just rinse and repeat.'
This Is Money contacted Robert Half and Indiespring to ask if they were aware their names had been used in an elaborate scam.
A spokesman for Robert Half said: 'We are aware of fraudulent actors impersonating recruitment consultants with fake online profiles on social networking sites.
'We provide information to recognise scams to the extent that we can, and proactively draw attention to the risk of job posting fraud through alerts and FAQs on our website. Importantly, we want to emphasise that no Robert Half professional will ever request payment of any kind from a candidate.'
Indiespring said: 'It's so sad for those who have been victims of the scam; they were sophisticated in their use of our branding.
'We have reported the scammers and the look-alike websites to the relevant bodies and tried to advise those who have contacted us as best we can.'
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There is nothing to suggest the scammers have been caught. Alice reported the scam to Action Fraud, which said it was 'not possible to identify a line of enquiry'.
A spokesman said: 'It was assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police but has not been passed to a police force for investigation at this time.
'With more than 850,000 reports coming into the NFIB each year, not all cases can be passed on for further investigation.
'Reports are assessed against a number of criteria which include the vulnerability of the victim.
'However, the reports most likely to present an investigative opportunity for local police forces, those where a crime is ongoing and those that present the greatest threat and harm to the victim or victims concerned, are the ones that are prioritised.'
Alice hopes her story will help save others, especially those looking to make some extra money, from falling for a scam that could leave them thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Have you been the victim of a job scam? Contact: [email protected]