A man from Leicester was tricked out of £6,000 ($7,620) in crypto payments. Fraudsters promised him a good job and then stole the money.
A report from LeicestershireLive said the victim was scammed after seeing an ad in early August claiming to offer work with no experience needed. He applied for a job as a data provider user with Clickaine, an international app marketing firm.
Clickaine is a Czech marketing company that was used in the scam. The firm says it wasn't involved.
The fraudsters contacted the victim on WhatsApp, pretending to be recruiters. They offered a monthly salary of up to £4,650 (approximately $5,800) plus commission for just an hour of work daily, paid in USDT. The victim was asked to open an account with Crypto.com.
The job was simple, but the victim had to pay in cryptocurrency before each task. The scammers gave a wallet address to send the deposits, which were needed to start the task and would be refunded with a commission.
The victim's experience seemed promising at first. He made small crypto deposits, completed his tasks, and received returns along with a commission. However, the deposits increased from £30 to £8,000. When he shared his experience on TikTok, many other alleged victims reached out to him with similar experiences. TikTok's community guidelines prohibit fraud, but scammers are still targeting users. Last year, a report from crypto.news said that there were more fake crypto giveaways. Scammers used videos of celebrities like Elon Musk to trick users.
These scams and fake ads are not just on TikTok. Facebook and X are also affected. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found over 600 misleading ads.
Earlier this year, blockchain security firm SlowMist warned about fake links on the microblogging platform.