Description

I unfortunately was scammed by a company that came through Vector Work from Home which I saw on a job site. I applied for it and was contacted by the recruitment department manager and then the trainor/mentor who would be interviewing me and later would be training me. Everything was done via whats app which was initially strange to me, but I excused it for being an online job and maybe that is how they do it, so I thought I would try it out. At times I felt unsure of it, at times I had many doubts, at times I questioned the process, at times I did not feel settled about it, but again because I know there are many work from home online jobs out there, I thought some of the things may just be normal. The trainor appeared to be good, she trained me but it was all through Telegram and she said they do all training this way for record keeping. The position was working for Zolo Realty Brokerage and the main component was to promote the product (the homes). She provided me with a document that had information about the company and the website I would be working from: https://www.zolo-work.com/#/ (which now I have discovered that the site must have been taken down after I reported it to my bank and the police). The site appeared to be legit and the role started off easy. The product that was to be promoted, was the homes, it seemed simple enough, all you had to do was "search the property and submit." At the end you obtain some funds, it was simple at first and I actually retrieved some funds which came via e-transfer, so I really thought this was legit. The first pay I received was in the amount a bit over $100 and the next day a bit over $200. So this made me think it was legit. However, things became concerning when I was landing on premium homes and I was told I would have to pay the negative high balance, but I would receive the deposit back and a large salary. When I brought up my concern regarding this, my trainor would suggest and remind me that I received 2 payouts already and that I should remember that I will get a payout in the end with a larger sum of money. She told me not to worry, she will be with all the way. Due to the payouts I already received, I thought okay this must be legit, but things seemed to snowball afterwards. All I know, is that I kept on landing on premium products which had a high fee and required the deposit funds before being able to receive the salary return. I fell into the trap of thinking that once I make the deposit I would obtain a return, my trainor assured me based on the online account displayed, that my salary was high and it evidently showed in the system that I would have a high payout. She continued to tell me that I was lucky landing on so many premiums and that my salary was going to be large. I think that is what blinded me. To be honest, I am not a person easily fooled, even along the way with my trainor, I was consistently asking questions and at times I could see she was getting frustrated by it, but it was the skepticism I had at the back of my head. The only thing that kept me compromising my doubts, was that I kept on having hope for the large salary noted in my online zolo account. I was trying to get to the end to finish my tasks, but along the way the premium continued to stop me from getting there. I was even frustrated at one point in time as my trainor told me that I would not land on anymore premiums so I don't have to worry, but the premiums did not end and I had to contact customer support about it. Customer Support told me I landed on a continuous premium and that I had one last task to submit, if I made that balance payment I would be able to cash out my salary plus receive my deposits back in full. I have been stuck at the last item of what I would be required to pay. I did not have that money. I borrowed a lot of money already and I never asked anyone for money before, but I was stuck and had no way to finish. This lead me to asking friends and family members and even asking my trainor. She always appeared very generous and said she would help me, she would say she put money in towards it and then would send me the receipt so that I could send it to customer support to add to my account. She kept on saying she wanted to help me and that is why she did it. Mind you, I believe the receipt may have been fake there was never any date on it just showed her name and amount. All in my head was if I could just pay the deposit balance, then I will get the full withdrawal of funds and my deposits and then I can pay everyone back. This was my main worry, those who sacrificed and was so willing to lend, I would need to pay them back. The other thing was the funds had to go through crypto or sometimes a 3rd party merchant if too many cryptos would be coming out of my bank account because e-transfer limits are instilled with the bank and causes further delay, so she had 2 crypto merchants that could assist. This was the other red flag, using crypto, but I again thought that since there are many who are getting into crypto and this job dealt a lot with usdc funds, I thought this was just the process. I had to consult with customer support about providing me with an extension because i did not have the funds. At times I also felt my trainor seemed abrupt and rude and that began to spark a red flag but overall she tried to appear kind, giving me thumbs ups and heart emojii's and sharing that she also has a family and children... She also told me in the beginning that she makes 8K to 11K a month as steady income. I thought that was puzzling because she told me she makes so much a month. I also was not trusting of her whats app image, she looked like a young girl but I also thought it was not a real picture. To add, in order to make this look extremely real, she added me to a whats app chat with other apparent employees who were part of the job. They would have conversations on here, some would report that they made some good money on the day ..... however when I looked at the whats app profile pictures, something about the pictures looked fake, each time i thought that when I looked at it. The braker for me was when my trainor told me I ask too many questions and she does not like that, she went from someone who seemed nice and understanding to again being quite abrupt. I thought about how drained I have felt over the past few weeks and have been completely stressed with really sleepless nights daily. My concern was there are people I need to pay back that were being generous, I feel bad that the light bulb did not go off immediately or that I did not take follow my instincts in not feeling 100% about the job, I just wanted to make more funds and help our family situation. I decided to ask the trainor if she would take a phone call and she said "no" reason being that they never had any need to call because they do everything online, this triggered an alarm for me. Then I decided to call some of the whats app group members using private number on my phone. I called about 6 or 7 members and each person I called I either received the message "this number is out of service" or "please leave a message after the tone", this did not have any voice recordings on it. I had looked up zolo site before and saw that it was a legitimate realtor brokerage, but I was trying to find reviews on people working on the online platform, I could not find any. All I found were some negative reviews on realtor agents and customers not liking how they were treated by them, but nothing on staff that worked in the role. After digging some more, I found a scam alert saying it may not be credible and I found little pieces of info here and there not really about the online platform, but more about zolo in itself, there were some okay reviews and some not so good reviews. I then found a review from someone on reddit who wrote over a year ago, about an online work from home job they started in but because of certain things, they realized it was a scam, some of the things she spoke about was exactly like what I was going through but the company she went for was under a different name. It literally was almost identical with a few items slightly changed. I then came to the realization that I may have gotten myself into a scam. I am so distraught and started to look further on the internet for help. I emailed the actual Zolo Realty Brokerage companies zolo privacy and media to see if this online version of the company was legit or not. Also the actual document that was provided to me shows an address at Lawrence Avenue East but online Zolo Realty is located on Yonge Street. I reported this to the police, to my bank to canadian anti-fraud department and hoping there will be some resolutions in terms of funds being returned. The police confirmed this was a scam and to no longer communicate with the scammers. Now interestingly enough, their sophisticated website, which had so much different aspects of information, such as the job role, the account with the supposed amount of money you would be paid, the deposits you put in which would be returned, so sophisticated but a huge lie. Now surprisingly, the fake company must have realized that they have been caught and have taken the site down. Please be careful, please do not cave into something that seems too good. Times are tough I know, people need to make more income, some people are even working 2 to 3 jobs to bring in more income, but please be careful. Any place that requires you giving money in order to get money is not legit. I am just hoping that God and the bank will have merci on me, to help recompensate my money, money that I cant afford to lose. Again, please be aware. I believe this company will move onto the next new name, but be careful. If crypto is involved, if merchants and sending e-transfers are involved, if you have to put in a deposit in which you are promised to receive the deposit back on top of a salary, please dont do it. Please adhere to this warning because I believe this company will come back in a different name. Also be careful with companies that only train through what's app or telegram and not communicate with you live or by voice.