by d_townman » Tue Jan 28, 2025 1:36 am
Hello,
I'm sharing my story here because I got scammed and I feel very embarrassed and taken advantage of and I want to do all I can to stop other people from falling into the same trap. I should've seen this coming from a mile away and yet I still fell into the trap. This is a long post, mainly because I want to be sure that I cover all bases and I really highlight that this is a scam.
I got added to a WhatsApp group about a month ago which advertised a job from VAN DAM MARKETING PTY LTD (a registered Australian business) which seemed too good to be true (RED FLAG). All you had to do was download Telegram, get added to a group (with about 600 members) where the admin would post links to Instagram videos and all you had to do was like the video and follow the account and you'd receive $10 AUD. Seems easy, right? Well it was.
This went on for 3-4 days, then they started to be insistent on completing what they called a "premium task". If you didn't complete a premium task and you just sat in the group chat earning about $50-$70 a day doing the Instagram videos then you'd get your rewards reduced to $3 AUD per video, or nothing at all. So they essentially force you to do the premium task. This is where things got suspicious.
In order to complete the premium task, they asked you to first download the Cryptocurrency app Trust (RED FLAG). This app seemed fine, but I don't see why you couldn't use your own. Then, for first time users they request you send them $150 AUD of ETH, and you would receive $180 AUD back (RED FLAG). Since I had made $150 AUD from them anyway, I decided to give this a go, why not right? I was added to another chat with an "auditor" who guided me to this weird website:
https:/ /www.insjhr.top/#/login
Super strange looking website, asked me to upload my drivers license (RED FLAG) to verify my ID for withdrawals. I did upload my ID, but I was a bit suspicious by this point so I edited the photos of the front and back to remove some key digits in the identification numbers so it wouldn't be valid anyway.
This premium task involved clicking a few buttons in accordance with a timer on screen, then "ordering units" by selecting a number determined by your auditor. Very simple stuff, only took a minute or two and boom I got $180 AUD.
This seems too good to be true I thought, I got money and I've made a nice amount back. Things were looking up.
Then they told me I had to do another premium task.
The next premium task was $600 AUD, which I already had from ETH I invested in about 10 years ago so I figured I wouldn't be losing much money if things went haywire. So I sent it to them, completed the task and they informed me that I would need to complete two tasks now in order to finish the full task (RED FLAG). The second task to complete was a MINIMUM of $2680. I told them I would never have access to this money, and that they'd just stolen it. I accused them of theft and begged them to send me my $600 AUD back, but they wouldn't. They insisted that all I needed to do was finish the second task and I could cash out BIG. There were other people in the group who had completed the premium task when I couldn't afford it, and they'd shown screenshots and receipts so I was sure it was real.
This is where I went wrong. At this point I should've cut my losses and accepted that I would not be getting my $600 AUD back, and be down about $400 AUD total accounting for the money I had made from them.
However, I was so nervous about losing that much money and I was so confident that I could do it that I decided to toss even more money down the drain. They gave me the option of a 50% loan, which I was able to meet the other 50% with from all my savings, and decided to give the second premium task a go. I went through the steps exactly as I was told, and boom. There was an "error" (RED FLAG) in their system. My (almost) $2000 AUD was out of reach for me, and the only way to fix it was to complete a "repair task", which was to send them $5,200 AUD to fix the issue.
Since this happened I have been in quite a dark place as I feel very foolish and embarrassed for falling victim to such an obvious scam. I was so excited about being able to provide for myself and my partner and I just thought this would be such a wonderful opportunity for us. Instead I have lost all my savings and backup funds and am now surviving paycheck to paycheck trying to rebuild what I have lost.
I am no longer in the Telegram group as they make you leave the group whenever you go through the process for a premium task however I still have the chats with the auditor and the other team member who performs the payments, every couple of days / weeks the auditor will message me and ask if I am ready to complete the repair task, where I tell them I can't afford it and never will, and ask for my money back where they promptly say no and "let me know when you can do the repair task". I am holding out hope I can get some of the $2,000 AUD back, but I very much doubt it.
Please don't fall for the same scam as me. From what I can tell it is an easy way to make about $200.00 AUD or so, but after that they will take you for everything until you realise it is too late.
From what I can tell it is a money laundering scam? Because you are sending them money as a "gift" and they are returning funds then their illicit operations can't be tracked? I'm not entirely sure, I have
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- The moment my heart sank