International 'digital marketing' scam syndicate on the prowl

Scam or con artists are constantly evolving new tactics to rip unsuspecting people of their funds. They often seek to take advantage of genuine money making opportunities and manipulate such avenues to suit their fraudulent goals. We have seen different schemes over the years ranging from the totally absurd to near perfectly designed cons. 

The trending one is a syndicate which appears to be dispersed globally which is conning unsuspecting victims via a digital marketing for profit scam. A couple of weeks back I got a message via Whatsapp from an unknown sender who claimed to be representing a digital marketing company in Nigeria. 

The person behind the keyboard at the other end claimed to be a female. She claimed that visiting a  YouTube Channel, liking and subscribing and then providing evidence of task completion I'd get paid about 2 USD just like that. This sounded too good to be true which prompted me to start scrutinizing the number which had messaged me. 

The first red flag was that the number was an international number with the the Indonesian country code. Why would someone who claimed to be representing a Nigerian company be using an Indonesian number? 

Despite this I played along, completed the tasks and messaged the unknown contact of haven done so. Then things got really weird. She then asked me to add a different contact on Telegram and thereafter send my account details to this new contact. It was at this point that I decided that this was nothing but a con in play with a new 'format'. Without further delay I promptly blocked the WhatsApp number and reported it.

Fast forward a few days ago , I stumbled upon a conversation in a Telegram group for job seekers and placements where a member was complaining of being defrauded via this format. It turns out that I had exited at the first or preliminary stage of the con.

The victim explained that he had successfully received payments for the free tasks but was then entrapped by the con artists to make payment to get paid tasks which would earn him more.  Unfortunately, the more earnings he was promised never came after making payments.

Other members thereafter shared their experiences or encounters with the group which masquerades as representatives of existing digital marketing firms. It was at this point that I realized that I walked away just in time before being lured in by the con artists for the kill.

The free tasks for which payments were redeemed, were nothing but a honey pot to draw in unsuspecting victims and thereafter defraud them when the payment for premium tasks is brought to the table. 

My encounter reminds me of a similar story which another user had previously posted on this platform. This to me is no more coincidence as it suggests that these scam or con artists have a point or place of convergence to plan or share ideas about new tactics or 'formats' to deploy.

By the way if you use WhatsApp or Facebook and you're yet to enable two factor verification, it's best you do so as soon as possible. The rate of hacking and subsequent hijacking of accounts to solicit funds is rather alarming. I have witnessed two cases within the past two days which gives room for concern. So to avoid stories that touch get yours done now.

Thank you for reading