Scam Alert: Why You Should NEVER Entertain (or Even Accept) Monetary or Job Offers Via Phone or Text
I think one of the most common frauds that you may have passed through is phone scams. These may happen via the landline or on your mobile phone. Either way, I remembered a series of recruitment scams that promised I have money, claiming to be from foreign exchange, or I can get a high-paying job that's worth (insert preposterous amount) per day. I could remember the various locations given were in shady areas downtown. Some of them even went to give the name of their company but it, was no surprise, it wasn't registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Why do I even want to give in to such a scam?
It all started with landlines where they offer certain packages. I could remember how I was told to go to this location downtown first. After having been victimized by a scam by a family friend--I thought it's not a good idea anymore. The offer was too good to be true. Some of them pretended to be from the foreign exchange (forex). However, there are so many forex scammers that just randomly pick names and get their gullible victims. Fortunately, I had the guts to say not to the forex scammers though some of them sound rather convincing. It's a good thing I curbed down my spendthrift tendencies or I would've given in to them.
The text messages with bogus recruitments were next. I remembered changing phones a couple of times. It's a good thing that my recent Xiaomi phone can auto-detect spam, unlike my second-hand Samsung Galaxy S7 which finally broke. I had to keep blocking them because of how annoying their too-good-to-be-true offers are. The Philippines isn't (yet) in the condition to give a higher minimum wage, unlike the richer countries. Besides, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration even warned that these messages can steal data, send malware, and even commit fraud.
I believe that these phone scams might be run by either financial scammers (with hacking abilities), drug syndicates, gangsters, or any illicit group. I think the promise of a minimum wage of certain amounts might be because they can offer it via illegal transactions. I think some of them might also be involved in framing unsuspecting people in their illegal activities. The chances are if I clicked on them--I might end up receiving a shipment of narcotics which could potentially frame me as a scapegoat. Another might be offering a job to monitor shipments of drugs. These are speculations based on the knowledge that criminals can offer extremely high pay. I guess that's why drug carriers take that risky job--they are offered high salaries to do so.
The chances are these are using burner phones. I think several messages may come from just one person. A burner phone is a cheap, prepaid mobile phone which is discarded when they are no longer needed. I guess that's why the same scam offer can appear in different numbers. It looks like that there's no use visiting the sites (which I suggest not to) or reporting the numbers. I think by the time the text message is made--chances are the phone will soon be destroyed to avoid detection. Granted, I'm no IT expert though it might be good if we can get IT experts to help crack them down.
References
"POEA warns vs. job offer text scams"