‘I lost over £26,000 to cryptocurrency work-from-home fraud’

A single mum is revealing how ended up £26,000 in debt after falling for a convincing cryptocurrency “work-from-home” scam.

Ogo Ezeaka, 34, shared how she “lost everything” after signing up for an online side hustle to supplement her income outside of her job in IT.

The Northampton native is now struggling to make ends meet after taking on the role which involved her uploading pictures to a website which earned her cryptocash.

However, it turns out Ogo had to buy the rights to the photographs before doing this with her spending “real money” and earning crypto.

As well as this, she had to pay a fee to get her crypto and another to keep selling which led to her taking out loans.

Overall, Ogo is paying off £18,000 in debt to the crypto account after being tricked by the work trainer who convinced her to take on the side hustle, as well as a £6,000 payday loan and £2,500 interest.

She explained: “£1,000 turned into £3,000, which turned into £8,000. After two weeks, I saw my balance fall to minus £18k.

“The scammers have taken everything from me, and they don’t care. I assumed the job would give me some good expertise and assist to pay my childcare prices as a single-income family.

The fraud sufferer was contacted by a recruiter known as “Flora” on June 21 through WhatsApp who instructed her a few position which was versatile and provided home-working.

This supposed recruiter stated to Orgo that the month-to-month base wage was £2.800 with a 0.5 % fee.

The single mum was additionally instructed that she would begin her job inside the week and receives a commission £460 each 5 days.

Ogo added: “A number of days after I registered, Flora gave me some duties to do. I nonetheless don’t actually perceive it myself – however day-after-day, I used to be given three duties to do. I’d must register 40-50 merchandise in an app, every of which had a worth hooked up.

“If you successfully submit a product onto the website, the value of it will be added to your in-app balance.

“Once I’d completed the tasks, they’d deposit all the money and profit made into a crypto wallet. Flora made it seem so genuine.”

An ActionFraud spokesperson said: “Action Fraud can confirm that it received the claim on 27 July 2023. It was assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police but has not been passed to a police force for investigation at this time.

“With more than 850,000 reports coming into the NFIB each year, not all cases can be passed on for further investigation. Reports are assessed against a number of criteria which include the vulnerability of the victim.

“However, the stories most definitely to current an investigative alternative for native police forces, these the place against the law is ongoing and people who current the best menace and hurt to the sufferer or victims involved, are those which are prioritised.”

The customer support crew for the corporate stated: “Our company hopes the lady can complete and withdraw her funds as soon as possible.”