Toronto police are warning of an employment opportunity scam where victims are told to send money to restore their rating on a fraudulent work platform in order to keep working.
The “work task” scheme starts with victims responding to an ad of what appears to be a legitimate work-from-home job opportunity, police say.
Once they express interest, police say victims are told to create an account on a fake work platform that utilizes a rating or performance-based system.
After registration, victims are allegedly assigned various tasks under the assumption they would earn commissions for completing them.
“While completing the assigned tasks, the suspects falsely claimed that the victims had made errors that negatively affected (their) account rating,” Toronto police said in a news release on Wednesday, adding that they were then instructed to send money to restore their rating.
As soon as the victims attempted to withdraw their earnings, police say the suspects would demand more money to be deposited before any funds could be released.
The victims were ultimately unable to receive any earnings from the platform, according to police.
Toronto Police advise being careful when responding to online job ads, saying legitimate employers would not require their staff to pay money in order to continue working or access their wages.
Police are asking anyone who has fallen victim to a scam like this to contact them or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
