The fact that fraudsters also repeatedly use ingenious methods to get money is shown by a phenomenon called “job scamming”, which is currently increasingly occupying the responsible criminal investigators at the police headquarters in Southeast Hesse. The crooks create fake job advertisements on the Internet, primarily on job or Internet sales portals. With supposedly very good pay, this often leads to a job with flexible scheduling and the prospect of working from home.
In many cases, the perpetrators initially pay a small amount of money to lure the victims - this attracts a large number of potential victims. Victims are usually offered the opportunity to work as testers of banking apps or have to go through a selection process, which usually takes place online. In both cases, the victims are persuaded by the perpetrators to reveal personal data and images using video identification procedures, which the fraudsters use to open real bank or Bitcoin accounts in the names of the victims.
The victims are then asked to forward the account opening documents (PIN/TAN, etc.) that were sent to them to the perpetrators. The delivery of the documents is supposedly intended to close the accounts opened by the “employer” after successful testing. Immediately after receiving the documents, the perpetrators change the online access data for the accounts, so that the victims have no access to the opened account(s) from this point on.
In some cases, accounts are opened by the perpetrators using the applicant's name, but with incorrect contact details. This means access to the account is open to perpetrators from the moment the applicant opens it. And this is where the sophisticated fraud continues: The accounts are now used for payments from other criminal activities, such as goods fraud. The perpetrators offer high-quality goods, such as smartphones or garden tools, cheaply as fake offers on the Internet. If a third party buys the supposedly cheap offer and transfers the money to the previously opened account, the money is gone - it is immediately forwarded abroad via other accounts. In most cases, all communication between perpetrators and victims takes place via messenger services.
Victims are usually not informed about the fraud until weeks or months later, for example when a goods fraud victim files a complaint or the local court reports that the account has been seized. Then the victims even face trouble because of suspicion of money laundering.
This is what happened to a 42-year-old from the Maintal area, who opened an account with an online bank in return for payment and presentation of personal data and used this to transfer money from suspected fraudulent transactions - until the bank reported it. From the start, the 42-year-old no longer had access to the account he believed he had.
A 28-year-old man from the Offenbach district, who took on an alleged app testing job on the Internet to supplement his salary, also fell for the crooks. He also had to confirm his identity using an identification program. The alleged company pages on the Internet looked legitimate to the job seeker, so he didn't suspect anything. He carried out this procedure at a total of three banks. The accounts were then misused by the perpetrators for goods fraud. The “job seeker” only found out about the scam after receiving complaints from the police.
The police therefore advise:
- During an application process, opening an account using the video identification process should definitely be rejected.
- If such a procedure has already been taken part, the account should be blocked immediately.
- Back up chat histories and definitely file a criminal complaint with the police if you have given your data to a stranger.
Source: South East Hesse Police Headquarters – Offenbach
Related to the topic:
Earn money by testing apps: Warning of fraud!
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