"Write a Accommodation Review and Get 50,000 Won"... Scammed After Diligently Writing

A scam method has emerged that involves recruiting part-time workers to write reviews through social networking services (SNS) and then extorting money from them under the pretext of charging fees, prompting a need for caution.

[Image source=Getty Images]

원본보기 아이콘

According to Yonhap News on the 26th, early this month, a job seeker named A living in Seoul saw an advertisement on Instagram recruiting part-time workers to write reviews for accommodation products on a famous hotel reservation site, Company B.

When he clicked the advertisement, the connected counselor said, "If you write ratings and reviews for accommodation products registered on Company B, you can receive advertising commissions from the hosts," adding, "Writing reviews takes about 1 to 2 hours, and the pay is around 25,000 to 50,000 won, paid on the same day." The counselor also explained, "You do not need to stay overnight; if you only register ratings, AI will automatically generate appropriate review content."

Conversation between Mr. A and the customer service representative of the fraudulent accommodation review website
[Photo by Yonhap News]

원본보기 아이콘

A decided to take the part-time job. On his first day, he accessed the link sent by the person in charge, signed up as a member, and registered a total of 40 reviews, earning about 40,000 won. Since the task was only to rate, it took less than 10 minutes to register 40 reviews. Having earned money so easily, A continued the part-time job on the second day and was assigned another 40 reviews.

However, while rating, a message suddenly appeared saying, "Insufficient balance to submit reviews." When A inquired with the person in charge, they explained, "If you charge the missing amount yourself and write the reviews, you will be reimbursed along with your pay." Accordingly, A charged 120,000 won and continued writing reviews, and the next day he received about 190,000 won, including the charged amount.

Feeling reassured by receiving 30,000 won more on the second day compared to the first day’s 40,000 won, A continued the part-time job, but the amount he had to charge kept increasing day by day. On the third day, messages appeared consecutively stating that 230,000 won and 400,000 won were insufficient, so he charged all these amounts, but then another message appeared saying 500,000 won was insufficient.

Eventually, running out of money to charge, A decided to quit and requested the person in charge to refund the amount he had charged. However, the person in charge only repeated that the charged amount would be refunded after completing the review submissions and then unilaterally cut off contact.

Only then did A realize he had been scammed and reported it to the police and also inquired at Company B’s customer center. Later, he found out that the site he had accessed was not directly recruiting part-time workers by Company B but was a fraudulent site impersonating Company B.

A told Yonhap News, "After searching the internet and scam prevention site The Cheat, I found that several others had been victimized by the same group," adding, "The damage amounts range from several million won per person to tens of millions of won." He also said, "Scammers threaten victims who post about their experiences online and continue their scams by changing sites," urging the police to conduct a swift investigation.

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