A SINGLE mum has “lost everything” after being plunged into a £25,000 debt hole in a dangerous work from home scam.
Ogo Ezeaka saw £18,000 drain from her account in just two weeks after being contacted by a bogus recruiter “Flora” via WhatsApp.
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The 34-year-old fell victim to cryptocurrency fraud but believed she was being offered the opportunity to earn £2,800 a month, plus £460 paid into her account every five days, with 0.5 per cent commission.
She was asked to upload 40 to 50 items onto app every day, for a set price – but she had to purchase the rights to put each product on the site.
Ogo said “Flora” claimed she would see the same value of the products she added, transferred into her own in-app balance.
Once she had registered all of the items on her list, the fake company promised to turn all the money made into cryptocurrency.
But, this was far from the truth and Ogo was horrified to see thousands of pounds drain from her bank account.
The devastated single mum, from Northampton, said: “Flora made it seem so genuine.”
At first, Ogo did see £500 in her account, which compensated for the fee she had paid to complete her tasks.
However, after two weeks her balance had fallen to minus £18,000 – when she failed to register an expensive product.
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The terrified mum raised her concerns to “customer service” and they told her she must bring the balance back to £0 by using her cryptocurrency.
To do this, she was forced to fork out £6,000 to cover a “withdrawal fee” – and resorted to taking out a payday loan.
‘IT WAS ALL A LIE’
Ogo said: “At first, it fell to minus £70.
“But it started getting to the point where the balance would become really huge. Before long, I was at minus £1,000.
“I spoke to Flora and she assured me I’d get my money back. If I kept doing tasks, I’d see more profit.
“£1k turned into £3k, which turned into £8k. After two weeks, I saw my balance fall to minus £18k.
“The scammers have taken everything from me, and they don’t care.
“I thought the job would give me some good experience and help to pay my childcare costs as a single-income household.
“But it was all a lie.”
In the end, Ogo was relying on her monthly IT job salary as well as the £6k loan to make up for losses on the app.
When she had climbed out of the £18,000 debt, the scammers told her she needed to pay another £6,000 to unfreeze her online account with them.
“Flora” had blocked Ogo when she reached out for help.
‘NO REMORSE’
The single mum is now left with her on-site £18k debt, a £6k payday loan – plus £2.5k interest to pay off.
She said: “The taxes, the loans and the initial debt all adds up to £26,500.
“I literally do not have anything left – and I’m on a 10-month repayment plan for the loan I borrowed, plus £2k interest.
“I was stranded – I had to pay my rent and my bills on top of this. I had to beg family and friends to help me pay my basic living costs.
“There’s been no remorse throughout any of this – I’ll never see that money back.”
When the heartbroken mum reported it to the police, they told her there was nothing they could do.
The scammers have taken everything from me, and they don’t care.”
Ogo
ActionFraud told her they have no way of tracing the scammer’s number.
A spokesperson for ActionFraud said: “Action Fraud can confirm that it received the claim on 27 July 2023. It was assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police but has not been passed to a police force for investigation at this time.
“With more than 850,000 reports coming into the NFIB each year, not all cases can be passed on for further investigation. Reports are assessed against a number of criteria which include the vulnerability of the victim.
“However, the reports most likely to present an investigative opportunity for local police forces, those where a crime is ongoing and those that present the greatest threat and harm to the victim or victims concerned, are the ones that are prioritised.”
The customer service team for the scam company said: “Our company hopes the lady can complete and withdraw her funds as soon as possible.”
This comes as many other people are victims of scams.
Billions of WhatsApp users were warned over a “must delete” text earlier this year.
Plus, the three most dangerous scams within the messaging app were revealed.
