Online scammers target Bahrain residents

Manama : As the Internet offers ever-cheaper and easier methods to operate scams, online job scams targeting Bahrain residents have been rampant on Facebook(FB) for the past few months. 

According to the fake jobs on FB, fraudsters offer ‘work at home’ jobs, which they claim pays upto BD 91 per day. The scammers use fake FB profiles and pages to circulate the scams. Often they use the FB advertisement feature to promote it.

The tricksters claim that FB is offering these jobs as part of their ‘work at home programme’. “FB just released a work from home programme that will allow Bahrainis to earn money from the comfort of their own homes. Now, tens of thousands of Bahrain residents will soon have the opportunity to earn thousands of dollars every month from the comfort of their homes, getting paid by cheque, direct deposit and even Paypal.” the website states. 

DT News can confirm that FB does not have such a programme.

“Scams on FB happen when scammers create fake accounts or hack into existing Facebook accounts of people you know. The fake or compromised accounts will then try to trick you into giving them money. If you’ve received a message that you believe is a scam, don’t respond to it,” FB states in its Help Centre. 

“If a scammer tries to message you, report them.  To protect yourself from scams, watch out for the following: People asking you for money who you don’t know in person, people asking you for advance fees to receive a loan or prize, and people asking you to move your conversation off FB (ex: a separate email address),” it adds.

The way the scam works is that once the victims signs up to the programme, he/she will then be asked to provide details such as their name and email address. 

Later, the victim is asked to purchase and download a ‘Facebook Toolkit’ and their credit card will be billed monthly.