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Sean Camara
Guest
Woman reveals new social media scamming scheme after falling victim and getting rorted out of $8,000
A woman from Sydney has shared a new lucrative scheme used by fraudsters to scam money from unsuspecting Australians who are hoping to invest.
Facebook user Anna Rogers recalled the moment she first spotted an innocuous-looking ad on the social media platform where it was promised that investors would be granted access to Elon Musk's investing platform so long as they become active members of a trading website, saying that she first thought that the ad was "too good to be true" and ignored it.
However, after being repeatedly targeted by the ad, Anna admitted that her curiosity got the better of her, prompting her to check out the ad herself on the 3rd February.
An unremarkable ad about investing in cryptocurrency piqued the interest of Anna Rogers who eventually fell victim to a new lucrative scam. Credit: Anna Rogers.
For those of you who have no idea who Elon Musk is, he is the founder of the multi-billion company Tesla Motors and is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of US$246.6 Billion as of 2022.
Given the nature of the offer and the person who was purported to be associated with it, the offer appears to be legitimate.
The ad read: “Pass the official test from Tesla.”
“Get access to Elon Musk’s investment platform. Tesla – IT breakthrough in the world of finance! Suitable for beginners. Available on any device. Potential profit from 1000 per day.”
Anna said that upon clicking on the ad, a website that seemed to be a legitimate trading platform for foreign exchange, cryptocurrency, stock, and commodities appeared on her screen.
She said: “The website looked legitimate and professional, and I was keen to make some money to achieve some financial goals I had made.”
“So, I signed up and a ‘trader’ named Mark called me that same day."
“After hearing my accent, Mark asked me what country I was born in. When I said I was from Poland, he quickly informed me that he was from Slovakia. Yet when I asked him a question about Slovakia, he said that when he was young, his parents moved to Miami. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
Ms Rogers revealed that while she and Mark were having a conversation, she asked him to teach her how to navigate the suspicious trading website.
She recalled: “Within about ten minutes, Mark asked me to download the remote desktop Application ‘Any Desk’. After I downloaded the app, Mark took control of my computer so he could show me in real-time how the platform operated.”
“For instance, he clicked on the screen which showed Bitcoin and I recall him saying ‘here you can purchase one bitcoin for AUD$29,000 but the next day you can sell it in the US market for $31,000 per coin’.”
Mark allegedly urged Anna to transfer $10,000 to a "trading account" as a starter fund for her trading career.
Ms Rogers said that she did not have that amount of money at the time and was hesitant to transfer funds.
However, she admitted that she thought the venture was legitimate so she decided to transfer $3,000 — all she could afford — from her Westpac account.
Anna then revealed that the transfer was rejected by Westpac, saying: "In hindsight, I should have seen this as a sign of something not being right.”
“I wish I had talked to someone about what I was doing.”
Ms Rogers then recalled that Mark had a call with her again the following day to follow up on the transfer, to which she decided to use her savings from her Commonwealth Bank account instead.
She explained: “I then transferred $3,000 to the account and within a matter of days, I received a return on my investment of $2,000.”
“I was thrilled.”
Anna said that Mark updated her with her investment every three to four days, sending her screenshots as proof that the investment was legitimate and encouraging her to invest more for a "bigger return".
Anna said that a man named “Mark” sent her screenshots to update her with her investment every three to four days, making the scheme appear legitimate. Credit: Anna Rogers.
“I had login details to the trading website so I could always check if what Mark was saying was accurate and it always was,” she said.
“Therefore, when he requested further funds from me, I said yes but that I was only able to invest a little bit more.”
On February 26, Anna transferred an additional $5,000 for her "investment".
Anna made an additional transfer of $5,000 in a bid to make “bigger returns”. Credit: Anna Rogers.
Two days after she made the fund transfer, Mark had still not replied, prompting her to feel suspicious about the scheme.
She said that she tried calling Mark to discuss her investment with him, only to find out that the phone number was disconnected.
Ms Rogers said that she immediately reported the fund transfers as fraud to Commonwealth Bank after her suspicions led her to believe that she was a victim of a scam.
A few weeks later, her speculations were finally confirmed after she received a suspicious phone call from a man who revealed that he had been passed her contact details from the so-called ‘Mark’.
“A man called me and said that Mark had passed on my details as he thought I might be interested in purchasing gold and making a solid return,” she recalled.
“I politely told the man that I was not interested and hung up.”
Anna admitted that she felt embarrassed by the experience, saying that she wishes she paid more attention to the red flags associated with the transaction.
She said: “Posting a fake advertisement on Facebook about granting me access to Elon Musk’s investment platform was too good to be true.”
“Mark sending me a phony document about ‘arbitrage trading’, insisting on payment by bank transfer and not being reachable by phone at any time should have set off more alarm bells for me.”
Ms Rogers also gave the following advice for other people, who are thinking of investing in cryptocurrency and trading, on how to avoid falling victim to scams:
- People running a scam try to look legitimate by posting fake advertisements on social media or having a professional website.
- If you are investing your money into something that appears too good to be true, trust your gut and proceed with caution. In particular, keep a lookout for posters or sellers who say that you will make money and reference a “celebrity” in their posts to entice you.
- If scammers want you to pay immediately or via bank transfer, think twice. Try to purchase a product or pay for services through a secure URL with “https” at the front, or via a secure payment service like PayPal.
- If you have made a bank transfer and have not received a response or suspect that you have been scammed, contact your bank to stop the transfer as soon as you can.
- Report the scam to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission through Scamwatch here. Please note that the ACCC cannot help with the recovery of funds or tracking down a scammer, but it may prevent other Aussies from being scammed.
Source: Anna Rogers/news.com.au
Stay safe out there, folks! Be sure to check out the Scam Watch thread on the website so you can stay updated on the latest schemes that fraudsters use to scam out money from people and tips on how to avoid falling victim to them.
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