“Hi Sophina, I need some help. My balance just dropped to -$1,450.”
”You are so lucky!”
“I am?”
Sophina was my new online supervisor. For hours she had trained me for a part time position as a product rater at FMC.com. It was a simple remote job that paid well. All I really had to do was log into their platform every day and click a few buttons. In five days I’d already made $900 but on that day my profits had suddenly turned into a deficit.
Which, according to Sophina, was a good thing.
“Yes, Mike. You hit two overpriced items in a rare combination product order. When that happens the manufacturer needs to compensate you for the total order. This means that you can get 30% commission after completing this order.”
Not sure what all that meant, but I loved that it put more money into my crypto wallet.
“What do I have to do?”
“Just complete the order and then withdraw your money. I’ll walk you through it.”
Only it wasn’t that simple.
It was actually a scam.
What I found out later was that it didn’t matter if I “completed the order” (meaning use my own money to offset the negative balance). Because I would have kept encountering more “lucky” combo orders that would have caused even bigger negative balances that I’d have to offset in order to get my money back.
Like a house-rigged slot machine.
But that money is actually gone forever.
And according to the subreddit /Scams, it turns out this same swindle is happening to lots of other “suckers” like me.
Here’s how the scam unfolds.
Someone introduces themselves on LinkedIn or via text message who says they’re from Indeed or Glassdoor. They make an offer job hunters can’t refuse: remote, part time work that pays well.
Just “meet me on WhatsApp and I’ll tell you all about it.”
The scammers name their platform after a company that already exists so that when you do your due diligence a legitimate company pops up in your search.
Meanwhile, your supervisor trains you on which buttons to push, but their real job is to help you ignore all the red flags that keep popping up.
Like, why won’t my bank let me buy cryptocurrency?
Sophina: “That’s because banks hate crypto since it loses them money.”
Or … it could be a safety measure in place.
And red flags like, you guys are paying me HOW much to literally click a few buttons?
Sophina: “Those clicks help manufacturers get better SEO rankings and more exposure.”
Or … it could be a bullshit platform that generates random content orders to click.
The biggest red flag was how “too good to be true” all of this was.
Sophina: “I know, isn’t it a fantastic opportunity?”
Or … it’s just too good to be true.
The key to the scam is they let you keep a few hundred dollars at first – mine went straight to my checking – so it feels like you’re making some real money.
But it doesn’t take long before the sucker’s wet dreams of profit dry up as we’re told to pump our own money into the system in order to get back our investment.
Only we never get it back.
Instead, we just keep getting “lucky” and told all will be good once we “complete the order.”
One guy at the subreddit said he lost $50k, another person lost $30k, and yet another lost $11k. They were all heartbroken, suffering from scammer PTSD.
All in all I lost several hundred dollars but fortunately I found out the truth from the /Scams before that amount tripled or worse.
How did I fall for it?
Mainly because I could use the money – who couldn’t use an extra hundred dollars a day just for an hour’s worth of work?
Plus, it’s unfathomable that anyone would conceive of such an elaborate con – to invent the bullshit “product rater” story, build a platform around the story, and assemble a team of evil people willing to dupe job seekers out of what little money they have – but it’s being done on a grand scale that makes “The Sting” look like amateur hour.
Here’s a partial list of the names of those scamming companies taken from that subreddit:
- vfc-ton.com
- fmc-uk.com
- h5.lisalemasters.com
- Verifone
- PHA Group
- Mccann
- e Intelligence
- Bain Q
- Dentsu
This is an embarrassing (and expensive) article to write, but I’m hoping that it saves someone else from falling for such an insidious hoax.
(Please share it with your unemployed friends.)
There is a special place in Dante’s inferno for anyone willing to scam people.
And Sophina – who’s probably a dude – deserves a front row seat in that heat.
Now I’m off to see a Nigerian Prince about an inheritance I’m apparently up for.
Guess I just can’t stop being “lucky.”
Hey I did that for like an hour but got incredibly bored. So when she hit me back to see if I was finished training I asked how I got paid. She said something I didn’t get and it didn’t involve me redeeming my credits for cash so I stop. So I stopped! Who’s crazy enough to put more than an hour in that idea. Who gets the full scam? It smells like one while you’re doing it in the first 10 minutes. Actor feels scamish from the contact. I don’t know these people from a foreign land!
Scam shamer!
Roderick, one reason these scams continue to thrive is because the people who have been scammed are too embarrassed to admit they’ve been fooled out of money. You calling us “crazy” doesn’t help with that or create a safe space where people might feel comfortable sharing their own scam stories. Your scammer sounds weak, mine was strong with counter moves to every red flag I brought up. Kudos to you for having “Spidey senses” powerful enough to detect the con, but these people don’t scam millions of dollars a year by being easily detectable. Your backhandedly racist “foreign land” tag aside, I appreciate your overall comment because it gave me the chance to call out the scam shamers who feel mighty “holier than thou.” Let’s hope you haven’t scared away other commenters who can save us the hassle of some other scams. Cheers.
Great advice, Mike. I’ve been approached by soooo many of these that nowadays I just delete and block. I just hope I’m not inadvertently rejecting a legit offer!
Thanks! Exactly, KC, us (we?) freelancers have to figure out who’s a serious potential client and who’s trying to pick our pocket with a smile.