‘I feel sick’: Aussie woman scammed in fake job horror

A woman has revealed how her dream WFH job turned quickly into a nightmare after four days.

A jobseeker who lost $48,000 to an elaborate employment scam online has revealed the cruel way she was lured in.

Amana Peters, 44, from Queensland, had set up a profile on the job search platform Indeed to find a work-from-home job.

“I was looking for work from home opportunities. I’d been contacted quite a few times since I’d updated profile,” she told news.com.au.

She received several messages about different jobs and a text message from a woman who claimed her name was ‘Isla’.

This was the original text. Picture: Supplied

Ms Peters thought it seemed legit. Picture: Supplied

‘Isla’ said she was from Indeed, and some recruiters had viewed her profile and asked if Ms Peters would be happy to have her details passed on to the relevant recruitment agency.

At this point, Ms Peters said there were no alarm bells.

Indeed has since told news.com.au that they will never “contact individuals using SMS text messages, WhatsApp, or Telegram”.

She was then contacted on WhatsApp. Ms Peters said that, in hindsight, she should have seen this as a “red flag,” but once again, everything seemed above board.

The alleged job sounded simple, with her task being to leave reviews about the shows and movies on Disney+.

She wasn’t too suspicious because the money being offered was “average,” and she’d heard of jobs like this.

From there, things got very elaborate a woman spent more than six hours training Ms Peters on how to use the online platform.

She said it all looked official.

“There were terms and conditions, there were FAQs, and everything she said matched the website,” she explained.

Ms Peters even did some googling to confirm it wasn’t a scam, but she came up with zero results.

“I couldn’t find anything! I tried looking for scams, and I couldn’t find anything that pointed to it being a scam,” she said.

She started out earning money. Picture: Supplied

She started out by investing $50. Picture: Supplied

The system was slightly complicated, but basically, Ms Peters would put $50 into a crypto account to start doing her reviews, and then she was promised she’d earn that back and more.

“I thought I’d take the risk of losing $50,” she said.

She didn’t lose $50; she made over $100 and got her $50 back, so she kept completing tasks.

Ms Peters did this for four days.

“I made money,” she said.

“I earned commission, and as soon as I completed my tasks, I got my money back, and it worked perfectly.”

Things went wrong on day five. It all started out normal, but then she wasn’t able to cash out like usual.

She was prompted to add more money into her account to unlock her earnings.

She became flustered and anxious and started pouring more and more money into the account to get the rest of her money back.

“I borrowed money, and in the end, I put in $48,000,” she explained.

Ms Peters said that in retrospect, it would be easy to write her off as someone “not smart enough” to notice a scam, but she’d initially been hesitant.

“It’d been working without a hitch,” She pointed out.

When she asked for her money back and even contacted an alleged customer service she was given a “big fat no” and told she needed to put in an extra $50,000 to get the rest of her money back.

It was then that it really dawned on Ms Peters that this whole thing was in fact an elaborate scam.

“I felt sick,” she said.

“I haven’t eaten for four days, I haven’t been able to sleep, and I’m working 12-hour days cleaning, trying to make it up to pay my mortgage.”

She said she hasn’t eaten for four days. Picture: Supplied

She tried to get the money back. Picture: Supplied

Ms Peters said her natural instinct is to want to “hide,” but she hopes that speaking out will help more people.

“If I do that. How do I stop someone else? If I hide and don’t do anything.” She pointed out.

Right now, she has $10,000 in debt and $100 in her account. Ms Peters said she’s had to “swallow her pride” and admit she was an “idiot that got conned” because she wants to raise awareness.

“I’m beating myself up, I feel sick, I know I have been conned, it has taken me a lot to admit it and all I’ve wanted to do is hide under rock,” she said.

“I just want to pay my bills; I’ve been struggling for years, and this time of the year, everyone’s vulnerable. They got me at a vulnerable time.”

Ms Peters has now launched a GoFundMe.

Scamwatch announced in early December that there’s been a surge in Job Scams.

In 2024, Scamwatch has already received 2,260 reports about job and employment scams, with total losses of almost $9.7 million.

The National Anti-Scam Centre is now leading the Job Scam Fusion Cell to co-ordinate government and industry efforts to crackdown on job and employment scams

“Job scams involve criminals posing as legitimate businesses or recruiters and targeting jobseekers with lucrative offers to complete tasks – deceiving their victims into handing over money,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.

“This public-private task force has brought together expertise from social media platforms, online employment websites, banks, cryptocurrency platforms, law enforcement, and commonly impersonated businesses to tackle these scams.”

In its first three months of operation, the fusion cell has taken down over 200 job scam websites, referred over 200 phone numbers for disruption, and is working with law enforcement, government agencies, and cryptocurrency platforms to freeze or restrict cryptocurrency wallets being used in job scams.

The Job Scam Fusion Cell will run until March 2025.