Stay alert! This Brisbane mum lost her life savings to a cruel LinkedIn employment scam
- Replies 3
With a sick husband at home relying on her care and desperate efforts to earn money to pay mounting medical bills, Brisbane mum Nikki (53) was thrilled when she was contacted on LinkedIn, a business and employment-focused social media platform, for a flexible work-from-home opportunity.
Little did she know, this supposed dream job would turn into a living nightmare and rob her of her entire life savings.
Nikki's story highlights the very real dangers posed by elaborate employment scams on unsuspecting job seekers across LinkedIn and other online platforms.
For the 53-year-old mum, who was already under immense financial and emotional strain, the scam came at the worst possible time.
Nikki's husband, aged 62, is in the later stages of dementia and suffers from multiple other medical conditions that require expensive treatment and medication. As his dedicated carer, Nikki needed the flexibility to work from home while also taking care of his needs.
With medical debts piling up and their financial situation becoming dire, Nikki posted on LinkedIn that she was urgently seeking employment.
Nikki was then contacted by a man named 'Alvis' who claimed to work for a digital marketing company.
At first, Alvis seemed like a dream employer—he offered Nikki small social media and content creation projects that she could work on flexibly from home.
To win Nikki's trust, Alvis used clever tactics like sharing photos of a woman and child he claimed were his family and co-opting the name and logo of a real digital marketing agency called Dune 7.
Elated to have a flexible income to support her family, Nikki diligently completed the initial small tasks Alvis assigned.
He even 'trained' Nikki and paid her a small sum of $263 for her first completed tasks.
But soon, Alvis began pressuring her to take on tasks referred to as 'expedited journeys' that he claimed would earn bigger commissions. But the catch is that Nikki had to pay substantial upfront fees to unlock each new lucrative task.
'After completing the 38 journeys, you will be able to withdraw your recharged funds along with your commissions,' the scammer said in screenshots of their conversation, as shared by Nikki.
'So you have to spend money to make money?' she replied.
Desperate for the income, Nikki trusted Alvis' assurances that she would easily earn back the fees after completing the assignments and receiving the commissions.
Over a devastating period of weeks of work with no pay, she emptied her bank account and even took out a $6,000 loan to keep up with the mounting fees required to get each new task.
In total, Nikki transferred over $15,000 to Alvis. But not once did she receive the commissions he had promised.
The scammer later began romantically hitting on Nikki before asking for an additional $10,000 to clear supposed 'issues' holding up her commissions.
Nikki refused to pay the amount, and Alvis was outraged. The mum was forced to block the scammer online.
It was then that the awful truth dawned on Nikki—she had fallen victim to an elaborate employment scam that had robbed her of her life savings.
Nikki was left unable to pay her own rent and resorted to borrowing money from her elderly mum to avoid being evicted.
Nikki eventually confessed her losses to her sister Elizabeth who searched online and found similar stories of victims who were also targeted by the same scam.
'I was sitting with Nikki as she detailed the events of the last couple of weeks, and I watched her face crumble as she realised, as she told me out loud, that what she'd been told by the “employer” was simply not feasible...or genuine.'
'I showed her an article in the paper of a similar scam, and when she read it and recognised the similarities between her experience, the bottom fell out of her world as she realised she had, in fact, been scammed.'
Elizabeth had set up a GoFundMe to help her sister recover some of her losses.
'As you can imagine, as well as the devastating financial implications, she is unbelievably humiliated that she fell for this scam,' Elizabeth wrote on GoFundMe, an online fundraising page.
'She was a prime target for these people...desperately looking for work. A financial situation that was deteriorating weekly...and no way out on the horizon.'
Elizabeth said that Nikki 'worked hard for everything she had and never asked for anything in return'.
'Anyone that knows Nikki has seen that she would give the shirt off her back if you needed it.'
'She feels absolutely lost and is struggling both emotionally and financially.'
'Any money raised will go towards firstly paying our mum back, then paying the loan back, and then putting some money away to support her husband.'
Members, have you heard of a similar scam before? Let us know in the comments below!
Little did she know, this supposed dream job would turn into a living nightmare and rob her of her entire life savings.
Nikki's story highlights the very real dangers posed by elaborate employment scams on unsuspecting job seekers across LinkedIn and other online platforms.
For the 53-year-old mum, who was already under immense financial and emotional strain, the scam came at the worst possible time.
A Brisbane mum was scammed while looking for employment opportunities on LinkedIn. Image source: LinkedIn (left), Freepik (right).
Nikki's husband, aged 62, is in the later stages of dementia and suffers from multiple other medical conditions that require expensive treatment and medication. As his dedicated carer, Nikki needed the flexibility to work from home while also taking care of his needs.
With medical debts piling up and their financial situation becoming dire, Nikki posted on LinkedIn that she was urgently seeking employment.
Nikki was then contacted by a man named 'Alvis' who claimed to work for a digital marketing company.
At first, Alvis seemed like a dream employer—he offered Nikki small social media and content creation projects that she could work on flexibly from home.
To win Nikki's trust, Alvis used clever tactics like sharing photos of a woman and child he claimed were his family and co-opting the name and logo of a real digital marketing agency called Dune 7.
Elated to have a flexible income to support her family, Nikki diligently completed the initial small tasks Alvis assigned.
He even 'trained' Nikki and paid her a small sum of $263 for her first completed tasks.
But soon, Alvis began pressuring her to take on tasks referred to as 'expedited journeys' that he claimed would earn bigger commissions. But the catch is that Nikki had to pay substantial upfront fees to unlock each new lucrative task.
'After completing the 38 journeys, you will be able to withdraw your recharged funds along with your commissions,' the scammer said in screenshots of their conversation, as shared by Nikki.
'So you have to spend money to make money?' she replied.
Desperate for the income, Nikki trusted Alvis' assurances that she would easily earn back the fees after completing the assignments and receiving the commissions.
Over a devastating period of weeks of work with no pay, she emptied her bank account and even took out a $6,000 loan to keep up with the mounting fees required to get each new task.
In total, Nikki transferred over $15,000 to Alvis. But not once did she receive the commissions he had promised.
The scammer later began romantically hitting on Nikki before asking for an additional $10,000 to clear supposed 'issues' holding up her commissions.
Nikki refused to pay the amount, and Alvis was outraged. The mum was forced to block the scammer online.
It was then that the awful truth dawned on Nikki—she had fallen victim to an elaborate employment scam that had robbed her of her life savings.
Nikki was left unable to pay her own rent and resorted to borrowing money from her elderly mum to avoid being evicted.
Nikki eventually confessed her losses to her sister Elizabeth who searched online and found similar stories of victims who were also targeted by the same scam.
'I was sitting with Nikki as she detailed the events of the last couple of weeks, and I watched her face crumble as she realised, as she told me out loud, that what she'd been told by the “employer” was simply not feasible...or genuine.'
'I showed her an article in the paper of a similar scam, and when she read it and recognised the similarities between her experience, the bottom fell out of her world as she realised she had, in fact, been scammed.'
Elizabeth had set up a GoFundMe to help her sister recover some of her losses.
'As you can imagine, as well as the devastating financial implications, she is unbelievably humiliated that she fell for this scam,' Elizabeth wrote on GoFundMe, an online fundraising page.
'She was a prime target for these people...desperately looking for work. A financial situation that was deteriorating weekly...and no way out on the horizon.'
Elizabeth said that Nikki 'worked hard for everything she had and never asked for anything in return'.
'Anyone that knows Nikki has seen that she would give the shirt off her back if you needed it.'
'She feels absolutely lost and is struggling both emotionally and financially.'
'Any money raised will go towards firstly paying our mum back, then paying the loan back, and then putting some money away to support her husband.'
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There is nothing wrong to enjoy a solo life. The GFM approach is nice but too many are losing lots of money and we the public cannot constantly support their mistakes.
