This is the story of how an unemployed woman, despite being highly qualified, lost almost RM10,000 in this scam that is becoming increasingly popular.
I am an accountant by trade, and 3 months ago I lost my job after being retrenched by my company. Ever since then, I have been desperately applying for jobs every day. I am active on LinkedIn and often browse job portals in and out of Malaysia. With the cost of living in KL getting higher each day, and my savings running low, I was open to any form of income while I searched for a good job.
A glimmer of hope
One day I received a message from a Whatsapp Number (Malaysian) from a woman claiming to be from the HR department of a local travel agency. She mentioned she got my number from LinkedIn and then shared the job description, pay and how much commission one could earn. She also provided the SSM number of the agency.
I found out it was a real travel agency located in KL and I was assured. I was then asked to connect with her via Telegram and there I was even provided with a letter of employment once I had agreed. I was hired on a trial month, where she said if I passed, my base salary would increase.
In the trial month the base was RM2500, with unlimited potential for commission earning.
She also added me to a group chat of other “agents” with the same job as me. It was an active group chat with 15 members, each of them sending testimonials and screenshots of their daily earnings.
A false hope
The first week on the job, I had to make bookings on Booking.com for room rentals, then give the booking number to my manager. At first they were just reservations where I did not have to pay anything upfront. I had access to a website portal where I could track my commissions, and within the first week I had earned RM200. The commissions were weekly payouts, and on the Friday after I started, I received the money in my account.
It was all going well until the next week came and I received my task for the week. This time they said the client wanted to stay in a particular hotel that was not on Booking.com, so I was given the link by my manager. When I tried to make the booking, I was asked to pay in full to reserve the rooms.
When I got back to my manager, she asked me if I could go ahead and make the payment first and they would reimburse me and I would get a higher percentage for my commission for the trouble.
I made the RM500 booking, and within an hour I saw the commission I earned reflected on the company portal.
The next day was the same thing.
This time the booking was for around RM1000. My manager asked if I could take this case as it would be easier for them to transfer and calculate how much to send me rather than having to do it for multiple agents. This went on for the next couple of days.
On Friday, I was asked to make a booking that was USD1500 for a 10 night stay.
This would come up to RM6300. I mentioned to my boss this was a lot of money but she reassured me that the payout would be that evening. By this time my commission for the week was around RM2200.
By late Friday night, I was panicking when I didn’t receive my commission and the money I had spent almost RM10,000 on making bookings.
Most of them were in USD so they raked up quickly. I messaged my manager a couple of times before bed. I hoped for the best and went to sleep that night.
When I woke up, I realized that I had been blocked and removed from every group chat, every message and even the online portal was inaccessible to me.
My panic and anxiety levels rose and I came to the realization of what could have happened. I found the travel agency number online and called them, finding out that the scammers were using their name and SSM number to convince people to work for them.
I immediately called my bank and reported the issue, trying to get my money back.
They advised me to make a police report and come to the bank. I did as they asked, but it seems that because I was the one that made the transfers and approved it with the OTP, there was nothing they could do.
The whole situation hurts so much because I was already in a desperate position looking for a job, and now I’m worse off because I’m still unemployed but now I also have depleted my savings.
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