Earlier this year I was contacted by a recruiter via WhatsApp offering me a job where I would review hotels online in return for commission.
As a single parent with money pressures, I thought it an attractive idea as I could do it at home.
I signed up and, to begin with, received small sums of money for the work I did.
However, now I fear it is not genuine – soon afterwards, they were asking me to transfer money to access the commission I had earned.
I have now transferred more than £6,000 to the company on the promise I would get a lot more back, but it has not materialised.
Now they are asking for another £6,000 to release the commission. Please help.
Name and address supplied.
Tricked: A reader has been left £6,000 out of pocket after they took a part-time job posting online reviews which turned out to be a scam
Sally Hamilton replies: I’m sorry to say you have fallen victim to a horrible scam – in my book, one of the most hateful doing the rounds.
The scammers prey on people who are financially vulnerable and in desperate need of extra work to support themselves and their families.
I receive regular texts and messages from fake recruiters promising ‘an exciting online work opportunity’. A recent one suggested I could earn ‘no less than £8,000 a month’. I was invited to contact ‘Mark’ via WhatsApp.
And as I was writing up this column, I answered my mobile to someone posing as an employee of a big-name recruitment firm saying they’d like to ‘discuss a job offer’ and asking me to add their number on WhatsApp.
I wasn’t tempted, not just because I don’t require extra work but also because I am familiar with this cruel trick designed to steal financial details or, worse, seduce their targets into handing over large sums of money on the promise of a big payday.
A reputable firm would not message out of the blue and nor would they expect a prospective client to communicate via WhatsApp.
Although I consider myself hardened to such tactics, I can see how someone actively seeking employment or needing a second source of income could fall hook, line and sinker.
In your case, you felt there was nothing to lose when a message arrived from a human resources department of a platform calling itself Google Hotel Ads.
There is a genuine Hotel Ads service on Google, but this is just for hotels to advertise themselves and isn’t connected to this scam.
A second person demonstrated the task to you on WhatsApp. It involved scrolling through hotel listings and rating each between three and five stars.
They instructed you to move to messaging app Telegram where you joined a group of fellow scorers.
Sadly, this fake group simply served to reinforce the elaborate ruse – boasting of their own financial wins and encouraging you to stick to the plan.
When you finally came to me, some weeks into the ruse, you still thought you might be able to get your money out. I was sorry to tell you this was not going to happen, and it was now a case of cutting your losses.
However, I felt angry that the scammer had tricked you so cruelly, so I stepped in to see if your lost funds could be recouped.
You had transferred money from your Revolut account (which you topped up from your Barclays current account) to the scammers’ cryptocurrency accounts.
Barclays said it was nothing to do with them as you had made the transfers to an account in your name.
And Revolut declined to reimburse you, even though many of the payments were suspicious.
Revolut said it had tried and failed to recover these fraudulent payments. Rules introduced in October last year say banks must reimburse eligible customers who fall victim to this type
of scam, known as push-payment fraud, in most situations. But Revolut declined, insisting it
had issued you adequate warnings. I am sorry to say the Financial Ombudsman Service came to the same conclusion.
When we caught up after the decision in late October you were disappointed – but decided it was time to move on. It will take time to repair the psychological and financial damage, but you were grateful for my support.
I asked both Meta (owner of WhatsApp) and Telegram for their position on scams that use their messaging services.
Meta says it offers tools to protect users, including asking if they want to block or report an unsolicited contact, while
Telegram urged you to report the channel that swindled you, which you have done.
HMRC won’t sort WW2 veteran’s tax problem
Please can you help my 101-year-old friend who served in the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1945.
Since June last year, he has been registered as severely sight-impaired. In August, he received an income tax demand for £107.40 for the 2024-2025 tax year.
This is based on his annual pension income of £13,107, minus his personal allowance of £12,570, meaning he had to pay 20 per cent tax on £537.
He should be receiving a higher allowance due to his poor vision. I asked HMRC to sort this out, but it told me I should contact the
Department for Work and Pensions. I wasted 129 minutes on the phone to them and since then, nothing.
K.B., Bolton.
Sally Hamilton replies: You are 77 years old and are worn out by trying to resolve your friend’s tax bill problem. You felt you were treated with disrespect on the various calls you made.
I contacted the DWP first and got the abrupt answer: ‘This would be for HMRC to answer, not the DWP.’
Strange that you were given duff information from the start by HMRC. Thankfully, HMRC’s response was more fulsome – it was happy to help.
Within a couple of days, HMRC had phoned your friend and confirmed it will be cancelling his tax bill.
You said he could now look forward to his 102nd birthday in January without having to worry about HMRC. Hurrah.
Anyone in your friend’s position, who is registered with their local council as blind or severely sight-impaired or holds a certificate or doctor’s document confirming this, is eligible for a blind person’s allowance.
In the tax year ending April 5, 2026, this is worth £3,130 on top of the standard personal allowance of £12,570, meaning they can have an income of £15,700 before having to pay tax. Find out more on gov.uk or contact HMRC on 0300 200 3301.
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk ¿ include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
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