Online job scam lands student in hefty debt

By: Ofentse Tladi

Freelance writer and student owes four people well over thirty thousand due to an online job she had given a shot.

Some red flags to look out for when job seeking. Phot: Ofentse Tladi.

As a freelancer, Selokela Molamodi, is used to being approached by strangers for work opportunities. So, when a WhatsApp from PinPoint Media landed in her inbox, nothing seemed amiss. In the text message, a person by the name of Palesa Lubanzi said the company was looking for people to write reviews and ratings for their clients.

The job opportunity was part-time and Molamodi was told she would make between R500 and R3000 a day. As the conversation moved to another messaging platform, Telegram, Molamodi recalls texting a person named Yana who gave her a salary quote and said she could start anytime. Her first payment came from an account that used a personal reference which she was skeptical about, but the company claimed this was a way to process claims faster.

Molamodi overlooked this as a red flag, something she would come to regret. The second red flag came when assigned tasks were completed and Molamodi was required to pay monetary deposits for each set of tasks done.

First, it was a small amount of R200, which she was assured she would be refunded for. "They sent the money, I got it back. That's another thing they do for you to gain trust," she alleges. The amounts then increased.

Things went downhill after a R1000 deposit was required. She began speaking to a new person named William, who asked her to create a Deezer account, a music streaming platform, to process these larger amounts.

The screenshotted Deezer account in which the money was deposited in. Photo: Selokela Molamodi.

Then the costs started getting complicated, they no longer included reviews and ratings but were exercises of solely depositing her money. Molamodi was threatened, told she would lose the money she had already put in if she stopped.

After opening a case, Molamodi has had no help from the South African Police Services and is still trying to raise funds to pay back the people from which she borrowed money to pay these deposits.

Job seekers should steer clear of job opportunities that are typically not advertised through reputable platforms like LinkedIn, Upwork, and Indeed. In March 2024, the Department of Employment and Labour warned people about these scams. "As soon as you're asked to pay anything towards recruitment and related employment services know that this is likely to be a scam," the department said in a statement.

The director Monnis Sarchi told Wits Vuvuzela that he didn't know Molamodi and no "respected company would hire someone over Telegram."

He added that the company does not offer rating and reviewing job postings and does not hire online. PinPoint's legal team will investigate further as this is not the first time someone has approached them with similar allegations.

It seems that the scammers were using the legitimate company as a front to run their scam. Molamodi has since been blocked by the people she was in communication with. She is currently getting counselling and has managed to open up to her family about the experience.