A single mum says she has ‘lost everything’ after falling for a ‘work from home’ cryptocurrency scam and racking up £26,500 debt.
Ogo Ezeaka, 34, signed up to an online ‘job’ after receiving a WhatsApp message from a recruiter named ‘Flora’, who promised her a flexible role in ‘product data submission and optimisation’ that came with the chance to work remotely.
Ogo hoped to earn extra income alongside her full-time role in IT, but now she is struggling to make ends meet after £18,000 was drained from her bank account.
The complex swindle saw Ogo employed to upload products to a website – earning cryptocash per upload, as well as a commission on sales.
But she had to buy the right to upload products on a website, meaning she spent ‘real’ currency, but only earned crypto.
And when she was told she had to pay a fee to access her crypto, and another to keep selling, she soon found herself taking out loans to do it.
She took out the loans and paid the fees but still had no access to the ‘cash’ she had earned.
Now she’s paying off her £18,000 debt to the crypto account – after being ‘deceived’ by her work trainer – a £6,000 payday loan, plus £2,500 interest.
Ogo, from Northampton, said: ‘£1,000 turned into £3,000, which turned into £8,000. After two weeks, I saw my balance fall to minus £18,000.
‘The scammers have taken everything from me, and they don’t care.
‘I thought the job would give me some good experience and help to pay my childcare costs as a single-income household.
‘But it was all a lie.’
The recruiter told Ogo she’d receive a monthly base salary of £2,800 plus 0.5 per cent commission – with £460 paid into her bank account every five days.
The mum began the ‘job’ later that week.
She said: ‘A few days after I registered, ‘Flora’ gave me some tasks to do.
‘I still don’t really understand it myself – but every day, I was given three tasks to do. I’d have to register 40-50 products in an app, each of which had a price attached.
‘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.’
Ogo would clock in every day and deposit money into the website – so she could complete each task. She’d be set three tasks a day.
Once she’d finished a task, her balance would be transferred into a ‘cryptowallet’.
Initially the fee she paid was small compared to the pot of cryptocash she was earning in return – which grew to £500 in just four days.
But then the balance on the website bizarrely dropped into minus figures – plummeting to minus £18,000.
This happened because if she failed to submit a product worth a lot of money, the total would be subtracted from her balance.
‘Customer service’ told her she needed to restore it to zero to keep working – but could do it using her cryptowallet money.
But when she tried she was told she had to pay a £6,000 ‘withdrawal fee’, for which she took out a payday loan.
‘At first, it fell to minus £70,’ Ogo said. ‘But it started getting to the point where the balance would become really huge.
‘Before long, I was at minus £1,000.
‘I spoke to Flora and she assured me I’d get my money back. If I kept doing tasks, I’d see more profit.’
She began using the cash from her monthly salary to try and pay her on-site debts – as well as taking out a £6,000 payday loan.
By late July, Ogo had raised enough to pay off her ‘debt’ – but she was met with a message saying her online account had been frozen, and she’d need to pay another £6,000 to restore her balance.
Once she’d realised, Ogo tried messaging Flora for help – but found she’d been blocked.
The account on the website is still £18,000 in arrears – but Ogo can’t pay to unfreeze it.
Now she’s paying off her £18,000 debt, a £6,000 payday loan – plus £2,500 interest.
She said: ‘The taxes, the loans and the initial debt all adds up to £26,500.
‘I literally do not have anything left – and I’m on a 10-month repayment plan for the loan I borrowed, plus £2,000 interest.
‘I was stranded – I had to pay my rent and my bills on top of this. I had to beg family and friends to help me pay my basic living costs.
‘There’s been no remorse throughout any of this – I’ll never see that money back.’
Ogo reported the incident to the police but says they claim there’s nothing they can do.
She also flagged the scam to ActionFraud, but they have no way of tracing the number.
A spokesperson for ActionFraud 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 reports most likely to present an investigative opportunity for local police forces, those where a crime is ongoing and those that present the greatest threat and harm to the victim or victims concerned, are the ones that are prioritised.’
The customer service team for the company said: ‘Our company hopes the lady can complete and withdraw her funds as soon as possible.’
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