PJ warns about growing online part-time job scams

The Judiciary Police (PJ) has issued a warning about growing trends involving online part-time job scams that result in the theft of applicants’ MPay accounts.

In a statement, the PJ said it had received, in the past few days, several complaints from citizens who, through social media, had applied for part-time jobs.

These alleged jobs involved “buying point cards” online and, initially, those involved managed to earn small commissions.  They later found, however, that the funds in their Mpay accounts had been stolen.

According to the same police force, victims had reported losses ranging from a few thousand to several tens of thousands of patacas.

The victims claimed to have found, through social media posts, advertisements for the recruitment of “purchasing assistants” that claimed that salary payments would be made the “same day.”

The same ads also claimed the jobs to be “safe” and “legal” and did not call for any investment or advance payments from the recruits.

After applicants clicked on the ad, they were forwarded to a designated website to buy points cards of a certain value.

After the “job,” the applicants would receive a small amount through MPay, as a commission for the transaction and payment for the purchased items.

During the purchase of the point cards, the website would direct users to a fake MPay page that, in reality, was a phishing website where the victims are tricked into entering their username, login password, and transaction password from MPay to complete payment for the acquisition of the point cards.

These actions would allow the scammers to later access the users’ MPay accounts and transfer the funds in them.

The PJ warned the public that, in general, all online job advertisements that involve “liking” pages and posts, “promoting” pages or posts and similar are usually false.

They aim to redirect victims to phishing websites that steal their personal information, including electronic payment or bank account information, causing them financial loss.