15/07/2024
Dami pa din "tasks scam" on Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other messaging apps asking you to review/like a product/social media page for a fee. If nagdadalwang isip ka kung papatulan mo to here's how the scam works courtesy of Reddit. Wag paloloko. Sabi nga sa GI Joe - "Learning is half the battle!"
"Step 1: Engage. At first contact they’ll sell this as an easy way to make a quick buck. They’ll be vague about it. You’ll be told that you need to perform specific “tasks” in exchange for money. Because they don’t start off with big amounts, you’ll think you have nothing to lose, so you say yes.
Step 2: Bait. They ask you to perform a “test” task. Example: They’ll give a link to a product on the orange app, which you have to like. Or they’ll give a link to a local establishment, which you have to give a 5-star rating or review on Google. The owners or sellers of said products or establishments are the so-called merchants. They’ll tell you you need to do the task to help the merchant increase sales and reach, and in return the merchant pays you for your help. The scammers will position themselves as working for the merchants, but they aren’t the merchants themselves. In reality, I think the merchants are just a decoy — they have nothing to do with this and are just being used as a “front.” You perform the task in no time and send them a screenshot to confirm you’ve done it. They ask you for your Gcash or Maya and deposit a small amount to you, say, 50 pesos. They might do another test, and you’ll give in. You’ll think to yourself, wow this is easy.
Step 3: This is where the scamming officially begins. They’ll ask you if you’re willing to go further, promising chances of higher reward. They’ll be super vague about it still, but because now they’ve given you some impression of legitimacy, you’ll say ok. They will ask you to send them money as part of the “task” — they call this different names, but usually “recharge.” They’ll show “tiers” of activities that promise increasingly higher rewards — for example, if you deposit 100, you’ll get it back with 10% interest, but if you deposit 1k, you’ll get it back with 20% interest, and if you deposit 2k you’ll have 30% interest, and so on. You can choose what tier you can afford.
Some of them even have a so-called cash platform which you’ll have to register on to view your “earnings.” Think of it like Gcash, only sh*ttier and fake. It’s a trash website that looks like it was designed in 2002. The goal is to make you feel like all of this is legitimate and real. It’s not. It’s a facade. You’ll register on the platform because why not? You wont need to put in financial or personal details that could cause identity theft on the platform; so you’ll think it’s all good. The platform is intended to make you “see” and “monitor” your earnings as you go through each task, again, to give you the impression that you have control over this and that they are trustworthy.
Here’s what they wont tell you upfront: There are layers to this before you can even “withdraw” your money. (Newsflash: you won’t and you can’t.) But all of this is just to trick you into thinking all of this is real. See illustration / example below:
If you choose to deposit 100PHP as a recharge amount on the platform, you are promised 10% back. So you’ll send the money via Gcash and then you’ll see it reflected on the trashy online platform minutes later.
You are told that you will have to complete a task - on the orange app or wherever, some minor thing that you can do in under 10 seconds. You’ll send them a screenshot once done. You’ll see the 10% interest credited to you on the platform.
They’ll tell you that in order to withdraw the 100PHP and the earned interest, you’ll need to perform another activity. Guess what that activity is? Yep, it’s another recharge / deposit of a higher amount, and this time around they’ll assure you you’ll gain a much higher interest rate. So you’ll do the 2nd activity, and you’ll see the new interest rate and the deposit reflected on the platform. If you ask how many activities and how many recharges / deposits you need to withdraw all your money plus the interest gained, they’ll be vague about it. If you forcibly try to withdraw the money from the platform to your Gcash in the middle of these activities, you get a “penalty” — guess what the penalty is? Yep, it’s another deposit / recharge. Essentially they’re HIJACKING your money.
In some cases, they’ll add you to a chat group with other people who seem to be participating in the same activity as you are. This is all to give you the illusion that other people are doing the same thing as you are, again to trick you into feeling safe, secure, and trusting of their operation’s legitimacy. Those people on the group may occasionally rave on the group about how easy it was for them to get the money, and how happy they are about the whole thing. They’re all scammers. They’re all in kahoots.
Step 4: You’re screwed. When you’ve finally deposited a substantial amount and can see that you’ve earned significant interest, they’ll tell you that you can finally proceed to withdraw to Gcash. But it won’t happen. They’ll tell you some error occurred on the platform. They’ll show some image of a database error, again to make you think all of this is real. To resolve this and to get your money back and the interest earned, they’ll ask you to do something— yep, you guessed it! You’ll need to deposit/recharge again. Meanwhile, someone from the group will say they’ve successfully withdrawn their earnings, and will even post some screenshot of a supposed Gcash transaction to make you believe that all of this is real.
To me, I think the way they bait people into all of this is by establishing a psychologically safe and trustworthy environment — you’ll let your guard down until you realize you’ve gone far too deep. Throughout the entire process, you’ll feel increasingly excited about the possibility of getting that cash, especially since you can visually monitor it. They’ll use broken english and be intentionally vague in their language, but they’ll assure you your money is safe and secure."
