Job offers promising high wages for 20 minutes of work a day; and, furthermore, with a multinational and recognizable company behind it, such as Amazon. It could only get better if, instead of you trying to convince them to hire you, company representatives contact you to encourage you to work with them.
Sounds good? Too good to be true, specifically? Well, that’s because it’s not even close to true. This is the umpteenth online scam in which in the end the only one who pays money is you.
During the second half of last year, several Latin American media (from countries like Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia or Colombia) echoed a campaign of sending messages through WhatsApp in which a “Amazon project business manager” introduced himself claiming to be hiring a “part-time” team, specifically “10 to 20 minutes”. Wow, the days are short on the other side of the Atlantic.
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The scam jumps the puddle
But now, the scam has crossed the ocean and the “commercial manager” is no longer the one who contacts the potential “signings” of the company, but the person who writes to us identifies himself as ‘Amazon platform receptionist’. Another version of the message, more impersonal, only notifies us that “Amazone Commerce recruits employees online.” Yeah, amazon.
The salary varies between “8-500” (8,500? Between 8 and 500?) US dollars for one version of the message and 36,000-240,000 ‘CLP’ (abbreviation for Chilean pesos) for the other. What does not change is the length of the working day: 20 minutes a day.
Do not trust unsolicited messages, job offers you have not applied for, or links to web domains that do not match the official one
In the message from ‘Amazone Commerce’ we are not even told what the job consists of, but we are offered to click on the “Whatsapp customer service link to start earning money”. Leaving aside that We don’t know what WhatsApp looks like in this, the truth is that the URL (from domain ‘url06.top’) provides little security.
In the other version of the message, the receptionist tells us that the job is to help her “process Amazon orders,” and then explains that the company “need different IP addresses to help the store increase sales and exposure”.
The two versions of the message that are being distributed (Image via Maldita.es)
In any case, if we answer that we are interested, we are encouraged to continue the conversation on the Telegram application. There we will be told that we are perfect for the job (once we have confirmed we have credit card), we will be asked to create an account on a platform without any connection to Amazon (‘shopping2018.com’) and send a screenshot to show that we have met that requirement.
It is there where the ‘contracted’ user will begin to carry out tasks of 20 minutes a day for which theoretically they are going to pay us, but then the scammers will try to convince the now scammed to enter small amounts of money to be returned with commissions…
‘Work’ interview via Telegram (Image via Maldita.es)
…until the victim reaches a certain amount of money deposited and at that moment you lose access to the platformwithout the possibility of contacting anyone to demand the return of the money.
Amazon is a regular target of impersonators from Internet companies and, of course, has nothing to do with these messages. In fact, the company warns that they never use messaging applications for work communications.
Via | Maldita.es
Image | Xataka Mexico
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