A young couple can no longer afford the wedding of their dreams after the bride-to-be was scammed while looking to make some extra money in an online side business.
Ashlie Campbell, 27, lost $35,000 after inquiring about a “data processing” job at Virtuoso Travel that she found through a Facebook listing.
The Geelong aged and disability support worker was promised a salary of $100,000 a year for writing fake reviews for the legitimate travel company.
She messaged the person who posted the job and quickly connected with a “mentor” named April, who Campbell spoke to via WhatsApp.
April told her to start writing reviews about a specific show, but she was constantly interrupted by a pop-up telling her that she had “insufficient funds” in her account.
Her mentor explained that Ms. Campbell needed to “temporarily” add funds to her account that would be returned once the reviews were written.
Despite adding the funds, the pop-up continued to appear and by the time Ms. Campbell turned in her final review, she had deposited $300.
The next day, the money was refunded through a cryptocurrency trading platform with an additional $50 commission, making Ms. Campbell think the job was real.
Ashlie Campbell, 27, lost $35,000 in an online scam that promised her a $100,000 salary for writing fake reviews.
Ms Campbell responded to a job offer on Facebook and quickly contacted a “mentor” named April, who instructed her to deposit money into a separate online platform.
Campbell said his first paycheck “stupidly made me gain confidence” and he continued writing reviews.
The pop-up kept appearing and she paid the refill fee each time before finally complaining to April about it.
“I said this isn’t fair, I don’t like it and she said, ‘Well, you know you’ve come this far, do you want your money back or not?'” Ms. Campbell said. he told 7NEWS.
“They pressured me to continue and by the time I finished my reviews I had spent just under $35,000.”
Once the reviews were done, April explained that one more payment of $10,000 was needed to upgrade Ms. Campbell to a “professional” review account and then just another final deposit of $26,000 to withdraw everything.
Ms Campbell told her mentor: “I’m not rich” and that she wouldn’t be able to pay the final fees before realizing it was all a scam.
At that point, April had already blocked her and Campbell could no longer message anyone else in the company.
Campbell was too embarrassed to tell her fiancé, Dylan, that she had lost all her savings in the online scam.
Campbell is now trying to raise awareness so that other people like her don’t fall for similar scams in the future.
Campbell reported the scam to the police, but they explained that nothing could be done to recover the money.
She struggled to find the courage to tell her fiancé, Dylan, what had happened because she was “so embarrassed… thinking ‘what have I done?'”
The money was intended for their wedding, engagement party and a new car for Ms Campbell.
Mrs Campbell had just gained her Certificate 4 in Aged and Disabled Care and the new car was to transport ‘wheelchairs and accessories’ for the people you care for.
“I feel like a support worker, I’m always contributing to the community… I’m usually never one to ask for help,” she wrote in a GoFundMe.
‘I am very aware that many other people have been affected by scams and I know I am not the only one.
“I really want to start raising more awareness about how easily people can be tricked into committing these scams and how many different types of scams there are.”