I got contacted by a job scam scammer! And 'scammed' them of $11!

I have received a random PM on Telegram a few days back. The person identify herself as Ella. She asked me if I'm interested in a WFH simple job reviewing hotels.

I could smell it's a scam already but decided to play along. I replied stating my interest and pretended to sound very eager. She quickly told me that she'll pass me over to her superior on Whatsapp.

I quickly received a message on Whatsapp but I'm too busy. I waited for about half a day when I'm free to deal with her. She asked for my name and quickly identify herself as having the same name as me!

Even sending a photo of her IC. (She didn't block out anything, which means I actually know her full name and IC number)

I was like "WOW! Such coincidence!" But deep down I was like, Oh? And so?

She quickly got into a small chat with me, sharing how this job changed her life and she has a lot of time for herself because she just need a few hours to earn $100+ a day. She went on to brief me about the jobscope. Basically, it's 'helping to advertise the hotels' by giving ratings.

She asked if I'm keen. Obviously, I must be keen, right?

She quickly sent me a link with an invitation code, which I've to input. Setting up the account is easy. they just need your name (I gave a random name, Hp number, password and something else which I can't remember). Btw, you can give a random phone number because they won't send you OTP for verification.

The website look something like this when I first logged in.

Once you're done, she will guide you on what to do via Whatsapp. Before that, she'll introduce you to something very important known as the "Experience Gold" (EG) which is a SG$111 which is already inside your account when you created it. She said that the EG will disappear once you completed 30 ratings. *This EG is very important, remember it, it'll come up again.

She'll also add you to a Telegram group (Ten Million Team) whereby someone will keep posting their earnings and saying they'll renew their EG.

Anyways, she'll ask you to press the "Play" button and then wait for the site to generate a random hotel for you to review. 

Just click 5 stars on the "Good Review". Do it 30 times and contact her again. So what happen is, once you rate a hotel, you'll earn the commission stated, some hotels pays more, some pay less. But whatever, by the end of the 30 reviews, they'll make sure you've $10 or more, as the minimum payout is $10.

Next, she'll ask you to setup your withdrawal account (PayNow or Bank Account, up to you). For this part, you've to input in your really bank/PayNow details, so proceed only if you're comfortable. 

I quickly got a message from my bank that $11 has been PayNow to me. Yay!! 

Now, this is where things get interesting. Because I've gotten the $11 and seems happy about it, she quickly jumped into asking me to renew my EG because it's 0 now. This means that I cannot continue to rate hotels and earn more money.

I ask her why must have EG in order to continue rating hotels and she replied the following.

I don't really understand what she means to be honest, is she implying that I need to prove I'm not using a bot or is not a bot by inputting money into the system?

Anyways, after I kept asking more questions for clarifications, she finally snapped at one point, writing "You want to continue rating or not?"

Honestly, I don't believe in paying more to earn money. Even though she kept saying I'll make SG$176 with that SG$111 deposit, which can later be withdrawn too.

I did a quick check on scamalert.sg and found this: https://www.scamalert.sg/stories-details/Story-06Jul2022224556PM

The poster who went through a very similar scam as me. He actually chose to renew his EG after chatting with the people in the Telegram group (which I feel are part of the scam!) I am still in the Telegram group which I was added in and there are a few particular users who will post daily sharing their earnings and saying they'll renew again.

When he renewed and started his ratings once again, he realised that he could hardly reach the minimum number of ratings to withdraw. They just keep asking him to input more money before he can continue.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure this is a scam, although I haven't really be scammed. But the red flags are there. Never pay to be paid! And even if someone shared their IC with you, doesn't mean they're not scammers.

*Update: Their domain (hamptonsysussg.com) has been taken down. A quick WHOIS search shows that it's only setup on 20th July in He Nan, China.

Well, at least I got a $11 from the scammers! LOL.