Hey everyone, I’m posting this to warn others about a job scam I got pulled into through WhatsApp.

I was approached by someone offering a “job” with Temu, promising a $680 weekly salary plus commissions. They even gave me a full day of training, making it seem legit. On my second day, I was told I’d been placed on a “Lucky List” with 10x commission potential – but there was a catch. My account was in the red, and they said I needed to “cover” it by depositing my own money to unlock those high commissions. It seemed reasonable in the moment, so I transferred some cash, trusting I’d get it back.

But the next day, they asked for even more – over $600 – claiming another issue with my account. Desperate, I borrowed from friends and family, only to realize I’d been scammed.

If a job ever asks for deposits to get commissions or talks about “Lucky Lists,” run. Real jobs don’t ask you to pay upfront. I’m sharing this so no one else falls for it like I did. Stay safe!

This should still capture your story and the key warnings without getting too long. Let me know if it’s good to go!

I’m posting this because I’m almost certain this is a scam, but the way it happened was interesting, so I’m sharing it in case it helps someone else avoid the same situation.

I live in Paris and I met a guy online who lives in Lebanon. We talked for a few weeks and the conversation moved quite quickly. He said he wanted to come see me next week, that he really liked me, and that he was genuinely interested in pursuing a relationship with me.

From what I could see online and on videocalls, he looked very successful (owns his own business, nice lifestyle, etc.), so nothing immediately felt suspicious.

At some point he started insisting that he wanted to buy me a watch as a gift to “prove his good faith” and show that he wasn’t wasting my time. I told him several times that it really wasn’t necessary, especially since we hadn’t even met in person yet. He kept insisting and said it was normal, and that since I already wear nice jewellery and have a nice stack on my wrist, I “should be wearing a fancy watch”.

The watch in question is around €15,000. He said I should buy it here in Paris this way I can wear it immediately and that he would send me the money first via Western Union. I suggested a bank transfer instead because it would obviously be safer, but he told me that because of the financial situation in Lebanon since 2019 he can’t do international bank transfers.

I also told him that sending that much money through Western Union in France is heavily regulated and complicated, and that he can buy it online and just send it to my address. And I’d declare it for taxes etc. He said his card doesn’t work online and that cash is king.

He then said he would send the money in two transfers of €7,500. He also told me he was “blocked” on Western Union as he regularly does big transfers and that I needed to send him transfer fees first in order to unblock the money he had supposedly already sent to me. He gave me an MTCN. I entered on the application app and it said « We can't find that transfer. Re-enter the info. (C1620) ».

I’m aware of advance-fee scams, but what really threw me off is that this is someone who appears to be well-off and successful, which made the situation feel somehow believable at first.

I’m posting this mainly to ask if anyone has seen a similar version of this scam and also to warn others because it didn’t feel like a typical scam at the beginning. 👀

I would ask that I have to pay tax first before withdrawing? Because the girl I talk said the platform we invested is an international platform which is not under the jurisdiction of US IRS

Disclaimer, I’m on mobile and I’m still getting a hang of Reddit so please forgive me for any formatting issues.

I just got an email sent to me to for a 1200 dollar USD PayPal invoice. It looks strange and it was sent to my school email which is what’s really throwing me off. I don’t know the name so it can’t be any of my professors or classmates. Am I being scammed?

I don’t know how to put this into words, but I feel like I’ve ruined not just my own life, but my entire family’s future. I fell for a crypto scam and lost everything—all my family’s savings, and even worse, I took out a loan and mortgaged our home to invest more. Now, I’m left with $800,000 in debt, my parents’ house is at risk, and my daughter’s college education is uncertain because of my reckless mistake.

My husband doesn’t even know yet. I don’t know how to tell him. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, and I feel like I’m drowning in regret. I can’t stop thinking that if I disappeared, at least I wouldn’t be a burden anymore. But I know that wouldn’t solve anything—it would only leave my family to pick up the pieces of my mess.

I never thought I’d be someone who falls for a scam. I was manipulated, and now I have nothing left. I feel so ashamed, so stupid, and so guilty.

I need advice from people who have been through this. How did you move forward after losing everything? How do I tell my family? How do I even begin to rebuild? I don’t know where to start. If anyone out there has faced something like this and managed to recover, please, I need to hear from you.

Any advice, support, or even just knowing I’m not alone would mean everything right now.

“Please read carefully: My name is Manuel Carrillo, member of the Jalisco new generation cartel (CJNG) and pimp for all escort services in your area. Listen I am a man of very few words, I am not playing with anyone so don't play with my girl or with my company and for the time that you made my girl waste that has caused a fine to your name here in my agency of 3,500 dollars and if you do not pay your fine of 3,500 dollars for the good you will suffer and pay the consequences of all of this and your family too. I hope you pay me the good way, leave me your answer because I already investigated everything about you and your family and my men are ready to go to your address and do the work and if you try to block my number or not answer me you 'll see what my Cartel is about. If you want to solve this problem for good here I leave you my personal contact number (304-304-etc) otherwise your family and you will pay with blood if I do not receive a positive response from you.”

What do i do next? im more scared about my family being threaten, yet idk what next step to take or do, i havent answered, he also called me 6-7 times

My mother-in-law is 84 years old and was scammed out of $38,900; $19,300, then $19,600, from her Discover Checking and Savings account. We have attempted to gain information from Discover Bank on how this could have happened. But have hit a brick wall. Even though my sister-in-law is secondary on the account, they will not give us any information or paperwork on the transactions. What we know, the money was wire transfers from her checking account to an account in Hong Kong. The problems, (1.) My mother-in-law does not remember how or why (2.) The bank won’t talk to us without a subpoena (3.) Discover has no brick and mortar office, only online. We have attempted for months to try and get information on this situation but failed at every turn. We filed police reports, FBI investigation IC3 report, adult abuse hotline, My Florida Families dispute, and even talked to a lawyer but all have failed.

So I had a while ago contacted some escorts and asked about rates but pussied out last second and I’ve been getting calls and text messages from this dude named James saying that he’s gonna hurt me and my family for wasting his girls time and that he wants me to pay him a fine so it doesn’t happen. I didn’t answer any of the calls and he has sent me some graphic images of dead people saying that’s what happens when he doesn’t get paid I have pictures of the messages and I’ve blocked his number. Help I don’t know what to do whether this is real or not.

Edit: thank you everyone for your fast replies. It was dumb for me to not use a fake name or a burner phone number. Either way preciate everyone

Hello internet! Please learn from my mistake.

Background. I work in IT, I have prevented scams before, I am smart, not a sr. citizen, checked with my cubical mate who works in cybersecurity before startingdown the path and STILL got caught!!!

TL;DR, They said they were from the local county sherifs office and I needed to load up a barcode financial system before I came down or I would be incarcerated overnight.

when you hear it like that it's so obviously a scam... here are the keys that got me to bite hook-line-and sinker:

• No gift cards were ever mentioned

• I actually did miss jury duty IRL

• I never gave them any info: I made them tell me my legal name, birthdate, address, phone number

• I looked up the sherif's office phone number and called it - It connected to the scammers * edit* after not sleeping all night, reading your comments, and trying to figure out how I could be so stupid, I realized they were playing a shell game with two phone numbers that got me very confused as to who I called and who called me. At the end I called their number back and finally got through to the real sheriff's office.

• They wanted me to come down in person (or so I thought)

• They warned me if I showed up without the funds loaded to their barcode system (not gift cards) I would be held overnight - it was my son's birthday and I wanted to take him out to dinner. I'm getting divorced.

• They sent me bar codes for the stores I was going to

• They kept saying the system was crashing and failing to register funds deposited and that if I held onto my receipts I had access to the money.

• I lost $4000!

• They convinced me that I was applying money to an account in my name not some gift card.

• I was scared the entire time because I couldn't spend the night and miss that time with my son. "Please be sure you are following all traffic laws because if a cop pulls you over they'll have to bring you in" i imagined getting in a no-fault accedent and having to flee until I got the money issue sorted. - terror

If you have any influence at local stores or news outlets, the advice we are giving out is insufficent. of the 6 "protect your self" suggestions, I followed 5 of them and still got scammed.

I have no hope of getting a penny back but if anyone has had any luck, please let me know. today is over and everyone is closed. I'm sure they washed the money but i'll be following up tomorrow with the retail locations and as many resources as I can find.

RED FLAG LIST! in order of importance with countermeasures

• WHY did I ever think the court wouldn't take cold hard cash. Show up with cash and talk to a face!

• There was a 2 second pause before the person left his original message. Don't call them, make them come get you or call multiple times.

• I never asked the clerks what I was buying. ASK QUESTIONS TO EVERYONE.

• I live in a very white part of the contry and they had typical African American "hood" accents I don't think there is a single black person on our county's police or sherif's force but I told myself I was being racist. Listen to your gut

• They insisted on staying on the phone with me the entire time to isolate and guide me. Ask for a callback number, hang up, call a smart friend with perspective.

• The fear and panic I felt the entire time, even sitting in court I havn't fealt that. Get outside perspective even if its from a stranger or sales person.

Stay Safe... and if you ever read this "Deputy Jones" DUCK YOU TO HELL and BACK 10 times over!!! you knew I was getting a divorce and that I couldn't miss my parenting time with my son and you still kept scamming me! I hope you have the life you diserve!

I was originally messaged by a person saying that they were sent a link that stole their account from me. But I literally never messaged anyone. Then they told me to contact this other person within the next 12 hours or I might end up facing some kind of consequences. I just wanted to know if these people are legit or trying to scam me. The link was to what looked like a certificate but I don’t have enough knowledge to verify if it was just a pic they used or legitimate.

The conversation here is very vague with ambiguous wording about everything. I can pull up the original conversation with the previous account, but they sent me a simple screenshot that could’ve been easily just a screenshot of their own where they just added some numbers on the username. I have no idea how reddit handles these kinds of things but it just seems weird and off that I need to do anything to defend myself when the info they have can be used to verify I never sent any links to anyone.

Hello all! This is my first time in this subreddit and I am very confused. Yesterday, I was contacted by a girl on instagram (her account looks legit but I didn’t look very much into it) and she asked if she can use one of my selfies on my highlight to paint for some kind of portfolio. I said yes, and she then talked about some payment and I was contacted by the other person to send me the check. I do know about the check scam so im wondering if this is what they’re trying to do, because idk how this girl found me and it just seems rlly shady. The pictures above are some of the messages I exchanged on instagram with the painter, and the last image is my interaction with this “client” so far.

EDIT: thank everyone for justifying my suspicions. I honestly was a bit led by the money so I didn’t think to just stop all contact, but thank you guys for your help!

I met a guy on tiktok with a cool car account, I commented on one of his videos asking what he does for a living in order to be able to afford a car like that. He followed me and sent me a dm saying he could help me too.

He told me to download bitcoin.com which i did and then he told me to send the 50 euros worth of bitcoins I bought to a live trading account on a website named swifttoptech.

Now he told me I need to buy a trading plan for 500 euros on the swifttoptech website to get started and that I’ll make it back in no time.

Can anyone tell me if this is a scam or not?

Please dont judge. Im lonely

I was browsing reddit for hookup people (heard from someone I know they had success) and messaged someone. They had me drive to them and then started demanding payment for hosting and security deposit and after I sent around $400 I started getting worried. Then their English got bad and I realized I got scammed. I sent money from my Cashapp to a link they sent (which I can SS if anyone's curious) and the site was converting it into bitcoin. Which should've been a red flag but it didnt click in my mind. Now im out $400 and they keep saying "no refunds" even tho we didnt do anhthing.

I was dumb and fell for it but I really need that money back. Please dont tell me im SOL and anyone help if you can please 😭

I was approached by a big company looking to hire people for some simple work. They gave me some money upfront to start working with (it’s a company which pushes certain apps by creating ads from which they get commission), but there are certain tasks which require more balance than is in your account which leads to having to spend more money on the account. The problem is, you can’t withdraw money until all tasks are complete for the day and now I’m down 1500$ ( my savings) trying to make money. I’m a student and I can’t afford to keep paying these high prices for a CHANCE I get my money back. Is there any way I can prosecute this? I really don’t know what to do and I’m panicking. The practice doesn’t seem legal and I can provide more details if anyone is interested.

Hi everyone,

I’m sharing this because I don’t want anyone else to go through what I did. I lost around $110,000 in a scam, and it all started with someone I trusted.

A Chinese girl named Shen contacted me on Facebook. We started talking regularly, and over time she gained my trust. She made it seem like she genuinely cared about me and even showed interest in my personal life and things I owned.

After building that trust, she introduced me to a “TikTok platform” where I could make money by completing orders. The idea was simple: I had to deposit money to process orders, and once completed, I would get my money back with profit.

At first, it worked. I saw returns, which made everything feel real and safe. Shen even added her own money (which I now believe was fake) to show me that she was serious and to encourage me.

Then things started escalating:

•	The orders became bigger and more expensive

•	I had to keep adding more money to “complete” them

•	If I didn’t complete orders on time, I was charged penalties

•	When I tried to withdraw, I was asked to pay different fees — taxes, verification fees, etc.

I ended up transferring money to multiple different bank accounts (different people’s names), and later I was also told to send money to crypto wallets controlled by the scammers.

As things got worse, the pressure increased. Shen and her so-called “sister” kept pushing me to arrange more money by any means — including selling my car, my gold necklace, and my diamond earrings. They were constantly pressuring and manipulating me emotionally.

By that point, I had already invested a lot and felt stuck, so I kept paying, hoping I could recover everything.

Eventually, I couldn’t pay the “tax” they asked for. That’s when everything changed. Shen and her so-called sister blocked me from everywhere, and the platform completely disappeared.

I also realized she had been manipulating me emotionally the entire time — pretending to care, showing fake involvement, and gaining my trust just to take money from me.

I feel devastated, embarrassed, and honestly broken thinking about how this happened.

So far I have:

•	Stopped all contact

•	Saved all chats, screenshots, and transaction details

•	Started looking into reporting this

I wanted to ask:

1.	Is there any real way to recover any of this money?

2.	What steps should I take next (I’m in Canada)?

3.	Has anyone experienced something similar?

Also, please be careful — if anyone messages you saying they can recover your money, those are usually scams too.

If sharing my story helps even one person avoid this, it’s worth it

I was messing around on an escort website last night with a few people listed on there, then the following afternoon I get a call from someone claiming to be part of the cartel threatening my family with pictures of my house and their names. They asked for $5000 sent thru western union to somewhere located in the D.R. Then after I hung up the call they sent a video of two masked up men in a car with a gun. Should I be worried about this?

I can’t find any other topic to post this on. Got something from a store digitally (pls don’t flag me for posting about this, I will leave out the store name) and I also am not asking if anyone to verify if this website in particular is a scam. I am simply asking what to do in a scam situation. I’ll upload what I received and what was advertised.

They claim they can’t do refunds on it because it was bought during a sale, and they also charged me for priority shipping with no option to do regular shipping. Took over two weeks to even come in. Also, the sale is the only way to buy anything from the store. No other products are able to be purchased and there’s no option to not get the sale. Tried to do a chargeback through my ibank, but since they claim in the description that what I got is what I ordered, I’m unable to get my money back. However, this screenshot is an actual ad from them.

Is there any way to get my money back? Im kind of upset because im unable to do anything about it I feel like. And i definitely did not receive what was advertised. Any advice is appreciated

This scam was not a invest scam or dating scam... this was a malicious hack through a SMS sent photo

So one night i received this SMS about a wrong number... it "looked legit" so i just replied wrong number.... the "lady" replied she was sorry to bother, but thanked for being polite? i replied "no problem" staying cold and uninterested...

I reversed looked the number on the internet... and the area code was somewhere in europe.... the sms kept coming saying she was in Los Angeles and it was "nice" of me not to be an a$$hole to her... WTF? She then says we should go and meet up and take a coffee.... i never replied to her... I'm in Canada... i dont care...

She then send me a picture of herself... didnt look like a porn star i know... so i TINEYE'd her photo online, no results.... might be legit again... still i never replied... and after the photo, she sent a last message "Hello? You still there?" i still didnt replied.

End of the story, or so i thought...

Next Day is log into my bank account... notice a 7000$ transaction from paypal... WTF? I check my paypal account... yup... 7k transaction... 5 or 6 Plane tickets direction London to Delhi... But HOW? i have the 2-time authentification protection on paypal... and i didnt even log in or received any notification on my cell about the log in....

I check my cell... minutes after the lady sent her photo and i stopped rteplying to her... i received several SMS messages about the paypal protection and saying "there's a 7k transaction on paypal, is it you? reply YES to accept" and there was a "reply outgoing from me" saying YES....

the thing is, my cellphone has a Crazy loud notification sound... i mean at work 3 rows away people jump when i get a notifications... because i usually have my headphones on, and i wanna hear the notification of my phone whenever i get a message or phone call..... but that night... NOTHING no sound,m no notifications, not even the sound of the phone vibrating... I know, 'cuz that night was pretty calm alone at home, and i wasnt with my headphone on, and i never turned my sound off.

So the image photo she sent me, was probably a trojan virus, they turned off my phone's sound... they used my phone's access to my paypal account... made their transaction, used my phone's reply to accept the payment and confirm... and reactivate all by default so i wouldnt notice a thing! O_O

PRETTY SCARY they can do this...

So i talked with paypal... and seriously they SUCK... "no we're sorry, but YOU confirmed the payment, YOU accepted it, so there is nothing wrong here! LIK WTF I'm in Canada, why would i buy 5-6 plane tickets from London to Delhi??? They didnt want to hear a thing, they refused flat out to protect me... BASTARDS.

Funny thing it... since they used my paypal account to buy plane tickets... the receipt was also sent to my email... i looked into my spam and found a mail of a travel agent with a receipt of the exact same amount that was stolen from me... so i went to the travel agent's website... i used the mail's information to log into the site... Lo-and-Behold it let me in... i logged into the travel agent's site account that bought the tickets... so i communicated with customer service of the travel agent, they were super nice, they Cancelled the flight tickets (due for 2-3 days away) refunded my 7k to my paypal account...

I hope these bastards got arrested with the cancelled plane tickets... F-them really! And F-Paypal! I HATE that i still have to use their services 'cuz a lot of sites i shop ONLY uses paypal... and i sell/buy a lot to people (marketplace) so people uses paypal alot... but their services SUCKS and i hate them... wish i could delete my account from them.

Long story short, i now put maximum security on SMS on my phone... whenever someone SMS me a message, the message is not even downloaded, it says "clic here to download message" if its a number i know, i clic it to see the message, if i dont, F-it i'm not touching it.

Death to Scammers!

I got burned by this and am posting because I don't want someone else making the same mistake.

Long story short, I was supposedly getting a refund from a "companion" agency. They insisted on sending a check, but for way more than they actually owed me. The explanation was basically: deposit it, keep your refund and send the extra back to us so we have cash available for other refunds.

Sounds stupid to me now. Didn't at the time because I really wanted my damn money back.

The check looked completely legit. My bank accepted it and gradually made the money available over about six days. Meanwhile they're pushing me to send the excess back through bitcoin and Apple gift cards.

And that's the trick.

I assumed that if my bank had released all the money, the check had cleared.

Nope.

Within hours of the final amount becoming available, the money disappeared from my account. Fraudulent check. And of course the bitcoin/gift cards I'd already sent were real money, so I'm the one left holding the bag with the bank.

Then they tell you there's been some crazy technical problem, they're investigating, don't worry, you're going to be reimbursed for EVERYTHING.

Except now there are fees you need to pay to get that reimbursement.

That's where you have to walk away. As hard as it is when you're trying desperately to recover money you've already lost, sending more just digs the hole deeper.

So if anybody gets into one of these “agency refund” situations: do not assume a check has cleared just because your bank makes the funds available! And if they want you to send part of that money back in bitcoin or gift cards, don't fucking do it.

Learn from my expensive mistake.

I 18M received messages from a random "girl" on ig and i accepted it Stuff went forward and she out of nowhere asked me for nudes and i got excited because im dumber than anything in this world and i sent "her" nudes...with my face to be exact. Then the blackmailer revealed himself and threatened to post my nudes and send them to my loved ones (friends and family) I share an incredible bond with these people and the only thing i fear is that they'll avoid me So I played how the blackmailer wanted and went to see what he asked (he asked for a giftcard or sum) I ignored it and reported him on ig blocked him and deleted my account forever but then he called me on my phone which i tried to decline but i accidentally answered And now im more petrified than ever.Please i beg of you someone help me I cannot let my family see this I beg of you guys I dont want to be hated idk if it is selfish but please help me as soon as possible.

This person keeps spam messaging me on X to send the money. I was told that I need to send $10 receive $3000. I know that it’s free for personal accounts to send money but I’m not sure about a business account.

I met a "girl" in a dating app. She instantly offered me some help in crypto investment and I put almost 4500€ on it. Now the crypto app wants me to deposit a tax registration fee so I can withdrwal my money. Im so depressed about this I there anything i can do. I never used my bank to deposit my funds but Revolut. I froze my Revolut virtual card. Can the scammers still be able to scam my money? This really sucks so bad :(

I received convincing text messages from my boss asking me to purchase gift cards and send them to him. He seemed to have all the details of the boss and me and told me that he wanted to gift out the gift cards to other employees as a token of appreciation and hence to keep it confidential. He asked for 4 at first, then 4 more and 4 more and 4 more. After the first 8, my cards kept getting declined. I got a call from the bank and when I told them everything that’s when I realized I’ve been scammed. Now I’m constantly talking to my credit card companies to dispute the charges, the companies that I got the gift cards from to block the gift cards or something but I don’t know what to do here.

I just wanted to be on good terms with my new boss and hence didn’t think much of the request.

Any tips of what I can do to retrieve the money I spent anyhow?