Work-from-home scam steals thousands from Metro Detroit woman

FOX 2 - Imagine a job where you can work from home and get paid for writing product reviews. It almost sounds too good to be true and as we found out - it most likely is.

Rachael Prins was actively searching for a new job when one found her. At least that’s what she thought.

The backstory:

"I was like okay, this is awesome, you know," she said.

The job seemed easy enough.

"You have to rate the products, give them five stars and say, 'Oh wow beautiful jewelry,' say something quick and easy," she said.

After four days, she logs on and sees $800 in the account, and then she was paired with a mentor.

"She said, 'Let's not withdraw that yet, wait until ...' That’s when it got worse," she said.

Prins was told, in order to see some game-changing money, she should put her own money in.

"In the beginning it was like $20, $50 or $100," she said.

She was told the more money she puts in, the larger the return.

"It was like this repetition, you deposit money and then you get stuck, to the point where you deposit so much money, but you are haven't been able to withdraw it"

Despite not being able to withdraw the money.

"I took out loans, I borrowed money from friends and family," she said. "I actually quit my job thinking it was still legit, I took out my 401K and deposited it and was still unable to withdraw my money.

"I'm out $20,000, which is absolutely sickening."

Prins says the mentor promised her the money would come eventually.

"She ended up depositing some of her own money into helping me too and actually she still talks to me," Prins said. "I don’t know if it’s legit, but right now I can’t withdraw it, and it’s like $43,000."

All of this was being done on 'WhatsApp’ which is extremely hard to trace callers and the victims there were using cryptocurrency.

That is another red flag, according to the Better Business Bureau.

"Then they are just keeping all the money and it’s on to the next," said Nakia Mills of the BBB.

"They always said you are not really giving your own money because you are going to get it right back."

After two months, Prins saw $43,000 in her account and told she had a limited time to withdraw it.

"I was like, 'What do you mean I didn’t do it quick enough?' You had to do it within three minutes and I guess it took me like seven minutes," she said. "And so they froze the account and said I now need to deposit $13,000 in order to get the money back."

That’s when Prins called the Better Business Bureau.

"In a two-week period, I think I saw eight and that is just people reporting," Mills said.

While she stopped the bleeding, unfortunately, the damage was done.

Prins says all of this happened in the span of two months. The BBB says the scammers are often targeting people who apply for jobs online.

But they tell people you will never have to pay money to make money in a real job and as soon as that happens, cut off all communication and report the site to the Better Business Bureau.

 

Crime and Public Safety