Apr 27, 2015

How I Got Hired by Facebook and Found My Dream Job! (POSSIBLE SCAM ALERT!)

I was doing my usual news surfing in the evening and I came across this very interesting sponsored post on Yahoo Finance "Facebook Started Hiring in Singapore!"


Wow! I have heard about the legendary work play balance at Facebook and it has been constantly voted as the best company to work for globally. There has been news that Facebook has been expanding their operations in Singapore and their beautiful office has been featured in multiple technology portals in Singapore, no doubt to entice would be bankers to work in Facebook instead.



Let me just click on this hiring advertisement and see what the requirements that Facebook is looking for:


I am promptly directed to his www.fbjobsonline.com portal and there is a huge picture with Mark Zuckerberg. Here is the job description:

Have You Ever Considered Working Online?
Singapore - 5 hours ago If you spend much time online and have been wanting to work from home, you might be in luck. Facebook has now released a "Work From Home Program" that will allow people to work from the comfort of their own homes.

To tens of thousands of people, this means that they will soon have a chance to make thousands of dollars every month, from the comforts of their own home, getting paid by checks, direct deposit and even Paypal.

In the middle of the recession this country and the world is going through, Facebook has been thriving and reporting consistent profits every quarter.

Facebook has now opened it's doors and will be hiring everyday people to work from the comfort of their own homes posting links, sharing stories, reviewing sites and more. The way this works is that people sign up to work with Facebook and other online companies. They will then receive a package which will contain all of the step by step instructions to get setup from home. You get directions immediately after signing up.

This will allow these online companies to hire talent that would otherwise be unreachable and compensate them based on results on a long term basis.

What you need: Either a Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet, an Internet Connection and the desire to make a living working from home. No special skills are required other than knowing how to use a computer and navigate the internet. There is no shortage of work and somebody can easily do this for 5 hours per week, or 50. NO selling or telemarketing involved! 

 My Scam Senses started tingling upon reading this very familiar style of copy-writing which I have uncovered in other online scams and so I did a few simple scam test. First, the headline picture of the Facebook leaders who seems to be launching this facebook work from home scheme. I did a Google Image search of that picture and this is what I found.

The Original Picture
The Picture on the Website
Wow! It fails my first scam test. I decided to dig further and see if I can dig out any other dirty stuff.

I scroll down the page and saw quite a number of facebook comments on how well the system works and how much money they made.

Curious, I started clicking on the different facebook profile links and interestingly, the facebook profile actually links to a real life profile, except that the race and face on the scam site is totally different from the actual person.

Ms Kim is obviously an Asian, but she is obviously too tanned in the scam site
Rebecca looks a lot younger than the person in the scam site
I can imagine the distress of the people whose profiles have been used to endorse a product which they probably never even heard of. I have taken the initiative to inform some of them, who are actually friends of my friends. The other accounts are probably dummy accounts. If you do see any of your friend's profile being used, please help to alert them!

After confirming that this is probably a scam site, I decide to probe a bit further to see how they operate. Let me try to purchase one of their work from home kit... Clicking on the purchase kit link routed me to this page


Wow. They wanted me to provide my name and my email account to see if I can qualify to be hired by Facebook. There, here is my 100% authentic name and email account.




And DING DING DING! Congratulations! You Qualify! I think with my credentials, they should hire me as their chief creative director. Anyway, they are offering my a 99% discount on my work from home package too! It only costs me $5 to sign up and I can make $4000-$5000 a month from home! They even generously provided a 5 mins time limit so that I have more than enough time to key in my credit card details. Given that I have so much time, I decided to take a look at a very small link at the bottom which states that terms and conditions.


And it is here, I discovered how they make money.. legitimately:


8.2 By submitting your order you will receive access to MTS and/or PWT and/or GDT software for a period of time. Your access period begins immediately upon placing your order and upon the immediate electronic delivery of your username and password displayed on the Congratulations page and delivered separately to you via e-mail. If your order included PWT and MTS, you receive a 7-Day introductory period access to PWT and MTS. Your 7-Day introductory period begins immediately upon placing your order and upon the immediate electronic delivery of your username and password displayed on the congratulations page and delivered deparately to you via e-mail. You will be billed $4.95 at the time of order submission for account setup. Once your introductory period access is active you will have 7-Days to test PWT and MTS and decide whether to continue in this program. Prior to the expiration of the 7-Day introductory period, you may cancel your subscription by calling +44-808-168-3922 or by emailing support@yourprofitgateway.com. Should you fail to cancel your subscription within the 7-Day introductory period you will be billed $89.90 at the completion of the 7-Day introductory period and each month thereafter for continued access to PWT and MTS until canceled by you. If your order included GDT, you will have access to GDT software for a period of 30 days. You will be billed $1.90 at the time of order submission for your GDT subscription. Once your access period expires, you will have the option to purchase another access period for continued use of GDT software. Should you have any questions regarding your purchase, you can contact MTS and/or PWT by calling toll-free at +44-808-168-3922 or by emailing support@yourprofitgateway.com. 

So is it truely a scam site? Not really, since you agreed to buy their online package for $5 and agreed to be billed $90 every month. However, the amount of misrepresentation and misleading information in the site just makes me want to puke. I notice that they are using another domain name "yourprofitgateway.com" as their email address. A quick Google search and this is what I discovered:


Google was a former victim... since 2009
And it seems like this site has duped people into thinking that they have been working for Google, from home...

I have checked out Facebook SG page and there are already people complaining about this site on the comments portion on some of its post. I haven't seen any response from Facebook SG on this matter yet and so if you do have any friends who are working in Facebook, do give them a heads up on this.  

Now that this scam has extended its tentacles to Singapore, please spread the word so that we will not have any more victims for this "Work from home and make big bucks" scheme which is borrowing the Facebook brand to do its dirty work. Losing that $5 or $90 is probably not a big deal, but I am more fearful of the credit cards details, which will probably be ended up in the wrong hands.

 If you do have any more news on this, please do contribute at the comments section below.

And by the way, I decided not to work for Facebook since I am already busy running 2 businesses. Sorry Mark Zuckerberg!

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