The wife of an Auckland man who secretly sent payments over five months to Malaysia and Hong Kong, speaks about the toll it took on her family.
An Auckland mother is $159,000 in the red and faces difficult conversations with her friends, after borrowing money to spend on a scam and claiming the cash was for a house purchase.
Now the woman and her husband are working overtime to pay people back, she’s since skipped a schoolfee for one child and cancelled another’s basketball registration to save money.
It’s all been caused by an elaborate hotel-review scam, the mother is the second victim to approach the Herald to admit they’d fallen for the hoax.
The mother is the second victim to approach the Herald to admit they’d fallen for the hoax. Photo / 123rf
Reading about his predicament, an Auckland woman - working as a nurse in a local hospital - realised she’d fallen for the exact same scam and was herself knee-deep in loans.
For the woman, whom the Herald will name Donna*, it began in December when she received an advertisement for an online review job through Meta (formerly Facebook).
Keen on a work-from-home gig with the recent birth of her youngest child, Donna took up the opportunity.
The scam was posing as an actual company - a well-known software brand - in Australia.
In a similar fashion to the Christchurch student, Donna was given training over the phone on how to carry out the reviews and, during the process, would be required to pay bookings.
The bookings were sold to Donna as investments. The more she invested into bookings, the more she would earn in bonuses on top of the amount she’d pay.
As the bookings came thick and fast, initially starting at $100 but slowly increasing in cost, Donna was eventually paying up to $30,000 of her own money for each booking.
At one stage, she withdrew $2000 from her bonuses account - which convinced her the scam was legitimate.
However, the amount Donna was owed in bonuses at that point was $8400. When she tried to withdraw the rest, she was told that wasn’t possible as she was “only at the junior level”.
The mother was given training over the phone on how to carry out the reviews and, during the process, would be required to pay bookings. Photo / Supplied
To reach the “senior level”, she would have to complete another 20 reviews.
Donna began to realise the extent to which her finances would be stretched, emptying her fortnightly salary before then maxing out four credit cards.
Her husband’s earnings were next to be invested, taken from their joint account with his permission.
The booking costs continued to climb, there was no perceived light at the end of her dark financial tunnel as Donna wasn’t close to completing all her necessary reviews to withdraw her invested money.
So, the mother of multiple children turned to family and friends for aid.
Her brother and three close friends were told the money would be going towards her online job, they trusted she would pay back what they gave her.
Seven other friends, however, were told by the woman that their money was going towards a new house that Donna told them she planning to purchase.
In total, the eleven unwitting investors lent Donna a sum of more than $115,000.
And even still, she’s yet to complete her required number of reviews as booking costs continue to come - with her fake company demanding another $28,500 from her to continue.
The mother admitted the family has been financially burdened by the scam mistake. Photo / Supplied
The financial picture of their family home is getting desperate. Her eldest attends a private school, the mother skipped the payment of her most recent school fees.
“I told them we’re suffering financial hardships,” said Donna.
“To my friends, I said this was our situation and they said ‘okay, take your time and there’s no rush’. So we’re working hard to pay them back.”
Donna said despite most understanding her predicament, a few of her friends have shown they’re unhappy with not being paid back yet.
One of her kids plays basketball for a local club, however, she’s had to pull the plug on their sport in order to save further money to pay off their debts.
“I’m just so burdened now, I don’t know what to do. The whole family has suffered,” she said.
“There’s been lots of stress. We were never going to make millions from this online job, but thinking back - I could have paid off all my credit cards’ [pre-existing fees] if I hadn’t taken this job.”
