Woman who lost $25,000 to scam job offer a reminder to be vigilant, ombudsman says

The woman lost thousands to a LinkedIn job offer scam. Photo / 123RF

By Susan Edmunds for RNZ

A woman who lost $25,000 to a LinkedIn job offer scam is a reminder to people to be vigilant, a complaints resolution scheme says.

Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL) ombudsman Susan Taylor said her service had received complaints about a variety of scams this year, and more recently had heard from people who had been scammed after being contacted about an online job.

She said, given the challenging job market, people might be more vulnerable to this type of scam, particularly if they had recently suffered a job loss.

The woman was approached on LinkedIn by a man who claimed to own a United States construction company, FSCL said.

He offered a part-time role with the promise of payment after he had found investors for a project in Tokyo.

After building trust with her, he persuaded her to take out a $25,000 loan to help the company, and said he would cover the repayments as well as give her a substantial return, FSCL said in its case note.

She applied for four credit cards with a combined limit of $25,000 and gave him the details.

But the man failed to pay and she was left with “overwhelming” debt, FSCL said.

She repaid $18,500 but had to stop due to financial difficulties. She lodged a fraud complaint with her lender. It rejected it because she had willingly shared her account details with the scammer.

FSCL said she had been scammed but because she had authorised the transactions, there was no basis to ask for reimbursal from the lender.

But it said it had concerns about her being issued four credit cards and that could be a case of irresponsible lending.

The lender agreed to write off the remaining $6500.

“This case highlights the crucial need for consumers to safeguard personal and financial information, especially when dealing with online contacts,” FSCL ombudsman Susan Taylor said.

“In these cases, consumers almost always communicated with the scammer via email or social media. They promise you a job, but in reality, what they want is your personal information and money. The excitement of new job prospects shouldn’t overshadow the importance of vigilance and verifying the source of the offer.

“Never hand over personal information or your bank account details without thoroughly checking out the person or organisation asking for those details.”

Taylor said consumers also needed to be aware that recovery of fraudulent transactions on credit cards, or from online money transfer services was often difficult with very limited chances of success.

“They shouldn’t rely on being able to get a refund in place of carefully considering the trustworthiness of those they deal with online. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

- RNZ