Woman loses £8k to scam paid product review side huddle

A woman has issued a warning after losing close to £8K (AU$15K) in an online job scam which claimed she could make money by reviewing products.

Jessica Adelman, 28, was looking for a remote job in August last year after she faced financial troubles with her own business.

Searching online, she found a company advertising for a job, which consisted of reviewing products for online retailers to earn commissions.

According to Jessica, the company appeared legitimate - it had a professional-looking website and paid for Google ads.

So she decided to apply.

Jessica, from Queensland, Australia, said: "It was the first job that came up when I searched for online jobs and it was a sponsored ad on Google.''

Once she applied, she was immediately contacted by the company and was told her application had been successful.

When she started reviewing products - using a website set up by the scammers - she was asked to make a payment before she could withdraw her commission.

At first Jessica was dubious but made the payment anyway - £36 (AU$70) - and to her surprise she received £113 (AU$220) for the reviews.

Jessica said: "I know people who get for reviews before so I didn't think it was that bad.

"I was added to a WhatsApp group full of people having normal conversations - talking about the tasks and things."

In total, Jessica had made £150 (AU$300) for her reviews in just 20 minutes, so she wasn't alarmed by the fact that she was asked to make payments.

She said: "My friends have been paid to leave reviews before and it was for shoes, kitchenware and other objects.

"I can understand why a big company would pay for a service like this and maybe it seems dodgy because they want to keep it secret."

At the time, Jessica was going through some financial difficulties with her own jewelry business Duverah and wanted to make more money.

She decided to review more expensive products that would pay up to £1040 (AU$2000) but required larger payments.

She was asked to pay £3,8K (AU$ 7.5k) to review those products.

Jessica said: "All the products were very high-end from brands like Bvlgari or Tiffany's.

"What was weird was that the guy [the scammer] told me to wait because I was just starting. He pushed me not to do it.

"I thought if this was a scam there would definitely not be so much resistance."

She decided to go ahead and made two payments of £3,8K (AU$ 7.5k) to review more products.

But when she got to the last product and was asked to pay another £3,8K (AU$7.5k), she became anxious.

Jessica said: "When I got to the last product a thing came up asking for another seven grand.

"I said: 'This isn't going to happen.'"

She immediately stopped and reported the website to Australia's National Anti-Scam Centre (ACCC).

The scammer she was in contact with began to message and call her repeatedly and continued for several weeks in an attempted to draw her back in.

She said: "He started calling me repeatedly to ask if I was going to do more work. He even asked if I wanted him to lend me money."

Thankfully, Jessica had a significant amount of savings but the scam held her business back for six months.

She said: "I wasn't going to starve but it did put a halt on the growth of my business.

"The embarrassment was just overwhelming.

"I'm pretty strong so I don't think there would be a long-term effect but initially it was a problem for me.

"I didn't even want to make this video because it's super embarrassing, but I don't want this to happen to anyone else."