Queensland man loses $25k in fake employment scam

The opportunity seemed like a good way to make some cash on the side. But it was soon taking up all his time — and money.

An IT expert has issued a warning after being conned out of $25,000 just two years before he was able to retire.

Martin Carroll, 64, has worked as an IT contractor for most of his professional life but like many in that field, he has been struggling to find employment over the past couple of years due to the ‘tech wreck’.

Mr Carroll, based in Queensland, told news.com.au he had a “healthy amount of savings” from his years in the IT industry but has been unemployed for the better part of the year, and as a result has been slowly watching his money dwindle.

On the hunt for work, and knowing Christmas season was just around the corner where hiring would become even tougher, the Gold Coast man leapt at the chance to make money when a seemingly good job opportunity appeared on his social media feed.

“It wasn’t a multi level marketing scheme like Amway, where you’ve got to convince people to buy your products,” he recalled. “I wasn’t keen to go out and harass people to buy products.”

Instead, all had to do was fill up an online shopping basket for an ecommerce store and would be paid around $300 to $400 per week.

He believed it was a way for the business to look popular to real customers, who would browse on the site and see what another person had just bought in real time.

In reality, it was a scam, with Mr Carroll’s daughter since launching a GoFundMe to recoup his lost money.

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Martin Carroll lost $25,000 in a fake employment scam.

Mr Carroll’s daughter Natalie Sinead has started a GoFundMe for him.

Mr Carroll registered his interest and learned he would have to pay money to make the purchases, but then he would supposedly be reimbursed.

“The idea of paying money to make money didn’t sit right,” he said, adding he decided to “step away for a few weeks”.

But the Queensland dad had been added to a WhatsApp group full of prospective workers who all seemed to be reaping the benefits of the program.

Someone in the group chat reached out and coaxed him to give it a try. But given what happened next, Mr Carroll has concluded the people in this WhatsApp group were in league with the scammers.

Mr Carroll began working for the ecommerce business, called Ruri, which appeared to have a sophisticated website and employee system. He was able to message a live chat service for help.

“What it was meant to be (was) when you go on shopping sites, they’ll have these messages on screen about all the sales on the site,” Mr Carroll explained. “This company said they supplied those messages. It was all quite dubious to be honest.”

How his employment worked, Mr Carroll explained, is that he would go through 30 “cycles” of adding the items that appeared in his shopping basket.

He had to pay for them but the idea was he’d get back what he paid for plus a “much bigger” commission.

Initially, Mr Carroll paid about $167 and received $70 back. It seemed promising so continued. Unfortunately, to date, that was the first and last payout he would receive.

What Mr Carroll’s dashboard looked like in the sophisticated scam.

One of the ‘special buys’ or ‘limited edition’ items requiring Mr Carroll to pay $9000.

The website purported to be Ruri World, selling clothes and other apparel items.

To up the ante, the scammers introduced something called a “special buy”, which cost more than most normal items. Some would cost several thousand dollars.

“They said you would average two or three special buys in a cycle,” Mr Carroll said.

As he was sucked deeper into the scam, he said he started to receive more and more special buys.

But he said the scammers were convincing, and he ended up shelling out more and more of his money. They told him he was on a ‘VIP’ level which was why he was receiving more of the big purchases.

“I got six (special buys) in one cycle,” he recalled. “They got bigger and bigger and bigger.”

One was for $3500, another was for $9000. The final one was $42,000, which he couldn’t pay as he didn’t have that much money.

When he contacted the help desk, they told him he had to pay it and only then would he complete the cycle and receive his reimbursement.

“The woman said it will be 100 per cent commission,” he recalled. “I thought ‘how is this possible’.”

Earlier this month, Mr Carroll decided to call it quits, concluding that the whole thing had been scam.

But by then, it was largely too late. He had already lost $25,000.

Mr Carroll could not complete his ‘cycles’ because a $42,000 special buy appeared.

The scammers manned a help centre desk designed to keep convincing their victims to put in more money.

Mr Carroll’s daughter Natalie Sinead was devastated to learn of the scam and fears for what it means as her dad heads into retirement soon.

“As my dad works in IT, I always thought he was on top of things like this,” Ms Sinead, 24, told news.com.au.

“Finding out the amount (he lost), is really heart wrenching.”

She said when she heard he had lost $25,000 it “blew” her mind.

“Being in between jobs for him, that’s a lot of money to recover. It’s the last thing you need,” she added.

It was especially upsetting to see her dad work so hard growing up, she added, often leaving the house at 5.30am and returning from a long commute around 6pm.

Mr Carroll became a homeowner quite late, at the age of 49, so still has a large mortgage to pay off, of more than $300,000.

“I fear my dad’s future as he does not have enough money to retire with his mortgage, so losing the additional $25,000 is heartbreaking,” Ms Sinead said.

“Being in between jobs for him, that’s a lot of money to lose. It’s the last thing you need.”

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