Was contacted via Telegram to by the scammer who was offering a job to rate hotels  I was guided to register an account on their work platform and was given the job of rating hotels. A total of 32 hotels had to be rated in order for me to withdraw my commission. I was able to withdraw $11 from them but they said that in order for me to continue with rating another round of 32 hotels, I had to first deposit $118 onto the platform. I was suspicious at first but the scammer reassured me by sending me a picture of her IC.

After depositing the $118, I continued rating hotels but before I was able to withdraw my money, I got a "luxury hotel" which meant that I could earn more commission but had to deposit more money to offset my negative account balance. they prompted me to transfer another $364 and I foolishly did so. Within minutes, I got another "luxury hotel" and this time I had to transfer $723 and I almost did so but luckily I was stopped by my Paynow transfer limit and did not manage to transfer the amount in the end. About an hour later, I came across an internet article which had a scam scheme that was almost identical to mine and that was when I realised I got scammed.

The whole scheme was quite elaborate and there were a total of 5 parties who contacted me and encouraged me to keep depositing the money. There was also a group chat with 30 members and the chat mainly consisted of casual talk and encouragement to keep on rating hotels.

I think some of the main reasons why I fell for this scam is because I was too trusting and wasn't vigilant to spot the scam.