Phishing is the type of attack where you are tricked to a site that has been cloned and looks exactly the same as the original site. If you are not cautious about this attack you can lose every penny you have saved or give you information to "bad guys" This attack is common to unemployed people and mostly those who seek to search for jobs online.
Unemployment is one of many reasons people find themselves exposed to online attacks. Mostly, young people are the most targeted since the high rate of unemployment is scary. You will hardly notice these kinds of attacks as they are organized very keenly and if you are not well informed you will end up losing your information or even money. This information gathered is sometimes used to attack you or sold to other people.
On my job hunting, I came across a site that would offer me a good job where I was to work online, a home based office and at my own leisure and it would offer me a very competitive salary. in fact they were offering $2000 in two days. I was so happy to have found the job of my life. I immediately started seeing richness pouring to me like rainfall. I certainly saw the opportunity to fulfill my dreams. Me and my poor wife decided to invest in this great job, little to our knowledge we were being corned.
I applied for an online writing job from one of the leading companies that offers writers for hire. I applied as a freelance writer and immediately a message popped up on my email account " if you are interested in this job please contact Ethan Logan Benjamin on Telegram. our project manager for more information". a lady replied to my application.
Without wasting any time I decided to contact Mr. Ethan as I was directed. The guy replied immediately " what area are you applying for? " he asked as he gave some choices to choose from. Mine was at number two 'writing'. He gave some instructions that the job is very important and is to be finished and submitted in two days and that he will pay $20 per article and the job has a total of 100 copies. so the whole project he will pay &2000 when done and accepted. This sounded like a beautiful chorus to my ears. I hurriedly converted the figures to my country currency which was approximately rounding to a quarter million. I signed the contract by replying am in and that I would start the project immediately.
It was 1 o'clock at night. I woke up my wife to inform her of my current job and the big pay they were offering. We discussed their job for like 10min as I waited for them to get me the suitable project. In a few minutes the guy sent me the job. I was to write the JPEG document in words and convert it to PDF and submit both in less than two day. I saw this like a piece of cake since I am a computer wizard when it comes to playing with the computer keyboard.
I started the job immediately as I wanted to submit the copies by the following day. At around 4 o'clock I had gone through and completed almost 70% of the project. I counted the remaining sheets and they were almost 20 pages long. I felt the need to rest and take a nap. I was to wake up at around 10 am, take a birth and by 12 noon I submitted the project. I informed my employer of my progress which he responded "well done! finish and submit immediately" followed by a smile emoji. I hurriedly finished the other sheets since he had no problem with me submitting earlier.
I have finished my project and it was time to submit and receive my salary. I contacted him where he wanted me to submit it. He instructed me to send him via Telegram as everything we will be doing will be on it. I sent my project and told me to wait for a few minutes before he goes through the job. In about two minutes he sent me a congratulation message with another account I was to contact for my payment. for a moment i got suspicious but i went ahead and contacted the guy.
The guy responded immediately " how much is being paid" he asked. "$2000" I replied. He instructed me to screenshot and send him the images for the job approved message so he can confirm. I did as he said. He asked me to send him the account number and the name of the bank account as well as the name of the account holder. I had a bad feeling about that and asked him whether there was no other appropriate way of getting paid rather than bank deposits. I proposed a few means but he kept saying they currently don't have those systems; they are only required to send money through bank deposits.
We argued for a while but eventually I sent the required details. He then sent me the screenshot to confirm my details and to this point a belived them for a while. In no time they sent me another image of a receipt from the Bank of America with my information and money deposited pending to be transfered. When I saw this I completely trusted them and said it's okay.The things look real like the one from the bank. But oops! When I checked my account there was no money.
I called them to inform them of my situation but they apologized and told me there is a mistake as there is a linking fee I have to send to the indicated bank for the money to be transferred to my account. I trusted them for a minute since I was to send it to the bank but not to an individual. I asked him to which account I will deposit the cash but he asked for my patient as he inquired about the available agent in my country to send him the money. In like 20 min or so he came back with someone from my local country account details and asked me to deposit him $200 and in about 6 to 7 minutes I will have my money in my account. I resisted for a while but when I went back to the last screenshot he sent me earlier, something told me to send the money.
I went ahead and asked them the reason they can't deduct it from my salary, but they were well equipped with this kind of answer since they told me the money is already in my account and it is hard to deduct plus the linking fee is on the banking sector and not them. I argued for a while but they said they have already done their part and the remaining job is on my side and the bank since they had already issued the payment. I cross checked the information they sent earlier about the banking slips and decided to send the money
As soon as they received the money they closed all Telegram accounts. I didn't believe my eyes, I knew something bad had happened. I tried to reverse the money but all in vain. I tried to find outside help and contacting the company responsible for these job adverts but no one helped. I didn't believe that I could spend the whole night without sleep for nothing. I felt like crying but I encouraged myself. It was a good reason but yet a hard one and a difficult reason to learn with. I cursed the day together with the scammers and promised never again to look for fortune online.
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