A MAN who fell for a scam on TikTok which promised he’d earn a fortune from a simple side hustle is now out of pocket to the tune of £6,000.
Omar Al Selk, 22, from Leicester, was struggling to find work after losing his job as an Amazon delivery driver last month when he came across an advert on the social media site for employment with no experience required and submitted an application.
A few days later, he received a WhatsApp message from someone who claimed to be a recruiter for Clickaine, a Czech marketing company.
They said they were looking to hire a “data provider user” and would pay up to £4,650 a month plus commission for just an hour of work per day.
Prague-based Clickaine has denied any knowledge of the situation, stating they never hired or had any contact with Omar and that it appears to be a “fraudulent scheme where individuals have unlawfully used our company’s name” – the company has also pledged to take legal action against scammers who misuse their name.
Initially sceptical, Omar attended a 40-minute training course and was added to a WhatsApp group with what he believed were fellow employees before being sent a series of online tasks to complete, which involved clicking through pop-up windows on his laptop, allegedly to boost app rankings.
Omar was asked to pay a small deposit in cryptocurrency before completing each task, which would then be returned with his commission, and over the next few days, he earned around £200.
But suddenly the deposits ballooned to thousands of pounds and after borrowing money from his family and friends to pay them the money was not returned to his account.
Omar, who was left £6,000 out of pocket, quashing his plans of paying for an HGV licence to start a new career as a lorry driver, has now launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help him get back on his feet.
Omar said: “I never thought that I would fall for something like this, but I did.
“I saw a link on TikTok and thought why not, I’ll just apply because it said no experience needed – I thought let’s just give it a go, it’s not going to harm me.
“When you are out of work it’s easy to fall into these traps because you really need a job, even if you are not going to get paid that much, it will be enough to feed me and pay the bills.”
Omar said he started looking for work after losing his job as an Amazon delivery driver on July 26, 2024, sending off between 20 and 30 applications without any luck.
Earlier this month, he stumbled across an advert on TikTok which said: “If you are looking for work click the link below. No experience needed.
”In urgent need of an income Omar entered details, including his name, number and email address, and on August 12, he received a WhatsApp message from someone claiming to be a recruiter.
The messages stated: “We’re currently hiring for the Data Provider User position and no experience is necessary. We provide training for new members.
“Our company, “CLICKAINE”, is an international app marketing firm. App developers use our platform to boost their apps’ ratings and rankings by engaging with our application.”
Omar was told via the messages that the job involved completing online tasks, which involved clicking through a series of pop-up windows, for around an hour a day via the website clickaineapp.org.
He was told the salary would be paid in increments, £644 after five days, £1,200 after 15 days, and £3,100 after 30 days, adding up to a total of £4,650 a month – plus he would get a small commission for each task completed.
To receive the money, Omar was asked to open an account on crypto.com, as his salary would be paid in USDT, a type of cryptocurrency known as Tether, which is tied to the value of the US dollar.
Omar said: “Looking back at it now, I should have thought this is too good to be true.
“I don’t know if it’s because I was gullible or because I was in a position where I needed money and a job.
“The way they were texting, their English was good, they weren’t using any slang words or anything like that.”
The same day, Omar was sent his first task as part of the company’s 40 minute training session, which simply involved clicking through a series of windows that popped up on his screen.
But there was a caveat – every time Omar wished to start a new task he needed to pay a deposit that would be returned once the task was completed.
Initially, the deposit was only around £30 and Omar decided it was worth the risk.
Sure enough, it was returned to his crypto.com account after completing the task plus £48.69 in commission, which he was then able to transfer into his personal bank account.
“He showed me that I could easily cash out the money from the crypto account to my bank account”, he said.
“I was like ‘why don’t I just carry on doing this, because I’m obviously earning something’.”
Over the next four days, Omar continued to perform the tasks and by August 15 he had earned £200 in commission and was allegedly just one day away from receiving his first salary of £644.
But the next morning as he was working through his tasks, he was told the deposit increased to £271, then £441, £1,690 and finally £3,600 – which Omar could not afford.
Unable to pay he could not complete the task or withdraw any money, so he turned to his friends and family for help, promising to pay them back the next day.
IF you’ve lost money in a scam, contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or by visiting Actionfraud.police.uk.
You should also contact your bank or credit card provider immediatley to see if they can stop or trace the cash.
If you don’t think your bank has managed your complaint correctly, or if you’re unhappy with the verdict it gives on your case you can complain to the free Financial Ombudsman Service.
Also monitor your credit report in the months following the fraud to ensure crooks don’t make further attempts to steal your cash.
No sooner had he made the payment, another window popped up asking for another £8,000 deposit for another task.
“Obviously at that point I realised I was a fool and had fallen for this,” he said.
“Straight away I text the guy and contacted customer service saying ‘you’ve scammed me’… but obviously it didn’t get me anywhere.”
The whole experience left Omar feeling depressed as he was hoping to use the money to obtain an HGV license and become a truck driver.
“I was just feeling sorry for myself and went into a complete depression,” he said.
“My anxiety went through the roof because I was like ‘What do I do now?’”
He posted a video on TikTok about what happened which has since gained 864,300 views and has been contacted by “loads of people” with similar experiences.
Omar has reported the company to his bank, Monzo, and Action Fraud, and said if they are unable to resolve the issue he will seek legal advice.
A Clickaine spokesperson said: “We want to make it absolutely clear that our company has never had any dealings with a person named Omar Al Selk.
“We have not employed him, had any contact with him, or requested any deposits from him.
“What Mr Al Selk describes appears to be a fraudulent scheme where individuals have unlawfully used our company’s name.
“We strongly urge him to report this scam to the appropriate authorities immediately.
“Our company reserves the right to take legal action if our name is misused in such matters.”
According to TikTok’s community guidelines the company does not allow attempts to defraud or scam members of “our community”, including facilitating financial and individual-targeted scams, identity theft or phishing scams, and scams related to investments, financial transactions, or jobs.
Anyone wishing to support Omar can visit their GoFundMe page.
The Sun has contacted Clickaine for further comment.
