The Fake Job Offer
Work-from-home offers with easy money that eventually ask you to pay for training, equipment or "account activation" — or to move money through your own bank account.
What it looks like
- An invitation on WhatsApp or Telegram: a few hours a day, high pay, no experience needed.
- The first tasks really are paid — small amounts, to build trust.
- Then a payment is required: training, equipment, activation, or a deposit against commission.
How to spot it
- A real job does not ask you for money. Employers provide equipment; employees do not buy it.
- An offer made without an interview and without your CV is almost always fake.
- If a company is named, ring it — on a number you found yourself, not the one you were given.
- Any system where you must deposit before you can withdraw is a trap.
What to do
- Do not send money and do not send photographs of your ID.
- Verify the company independently: companies register, corporate website, LinkedIn presence.
- Report the listing to the platform and stop replying.
If it already happened
- If you paid, call your bank and file a report.
- If you sent ID photographs or a selfie, those documents can be used to open accounts in your name: tell your bank and check your credit file.
- If you let someone else's money pass through your bank account, speak to your bank and a solicitor immediately — you may have become a money mule without realising, and that carries real legal risk.
- Keep every message and payment receipt.
Common questions
The first few payments really did arrive.
That is the expensive part of the trick: small genuine payments buy your trust, and the large request comes afterwards. Having been paid does not make the scheme real.
They asked me to receive and forward money.
Stop and refuse. That is money laundering, and it can end with your accounts frozen and an investigation against you — even where you acted in good faith.