East Asian online organised crime group preying on British job seekers
An organised group of criminals based in East Asia have defrauded job seekers in the UK and worldwide after getting a scam app on to both the Google and Apple app stores.
Working with victims who have tried to track down their scammers, Sky News has learnt they were operating from Cambodia, the Philippines and China, despite claiming to be a legitimate business based in the UK.
Using an app called New Century, which described itself as “an e-commerce order negotiation platform with millions of members”, the scammers try to lure people to pay into cryptocurrency and British bank accounts, promising payouts – but those payouts are never delivered.
Users attempting to withdraw funds found them frozen ‘in progress’ indefinitely
Victims locked out of accounts
One victim from outside of the UK who spoke to Sky News explained how he had fallen for the scam by responding to a public message on Facebook after losing work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mamoon Rasheed invested more than £200 into the app but was only ever able to withdraw £30 using the cryptocurrency USDT. Although Mr Rasheed has attempted to withdraw more, the app displayed his withdrawal as “pending” for more than two weeks.
After complaining, Mr Rasheed found that he was locked out of his account, and presented with a “connection failed” message when he tried to log in again. No connection error was encountered when he attempted to register a new account, nor does this error appear when incorrect details are entered at the login screen.
New Century’s claimed leadership team (L) and Ogilvy Group’s (R)
Fraudsters using British banks
Sky News has observed more than a dozen business accounts registered with British banks used by the app, which regularly changes which account users are encouraged to deposit funds into.
New Century claimed to be part of British marketing agency the Ogilvy Group, but a spokesperson for Ogilvy told Sky News: “Our agency’s name has been used fraudulently and we are taking action with the relevant authorities.”
According to business registry data collected by Companies House, the businesses behind these accounts have almost all been registered in the UK this year by people who have declared their nationality to be either Chinese or Nepalese.
No contact details exist for these companies other than their registered office addresses. One of them shares this address with a Chinese restaurant in Manchester, while another gave its address as a residential building in east London.
Nobody answered the door when Sky News visited the east London address, where a neighbour described the occupants as Chinese and Pakistani men who worked in construction.
Posts on Facebook indicate users are making thousands of pounds
Operated from East Asia
The cryptocurrency addresses that the app has used have received the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the USDT token transferred over both the Ethereum and Tron blockchains.
Different recruiter accounts on Facebook have posted identical messages to groups for job seekers in major British cities, offering opportunities to job seekers to earn “extra income” and inviting victims to contact them using UK mobile numbers.
One member of the community investigating the scam was able to convince the operators of two of these accounts to visit a webpage from which they were able to identify the operators’ IP addresses, finding in both cases that they were connecting from East Asia rather than their stated locations.
New Century’s page on Facebook had more than 30,000 likes and followers
Organised criminal network
Under its own brand and using these recruiter identities, New Century runs multiple WhatsApp accounts to engage with potential victims and has responded to messages at all hours of the day, indicating that there are multiple individuals involved in running the scam.
Sky News has observed recruitment taking place both on Facebook’s main platform as well as in WhatsApp groups.
A spokesperson for Facebook told Sky News: “Our teams have investigated these pages and groups brought to our attention, and have removed any that violate our guidelines.”
A number of accounts and the main New Century page on Facebook, which had more than 30,000 likes and follows, was removed after Sky News shared Ogilvy’s complaint with the social media platform.
The app was uploaded to the App Store under the name ‘Claire B Moran’
App rebranded as scam continues
The app has been available in various forms on both the Google Play and Apple App Store for several months.
A spokesperson for Apple told Sky News the app was removed in June, though we were able to download it in late July. The company declined to comment when asked to clarify this point.
A spokesperson for Google told Sky News they had removed the app, but Sky News was still able to find a version of it on Google Play. The company added that it does not provide statements in individual cases of app removal.
The New Century website and the app have now been taken offline, but the criminals have rebranded the app as “A Platform” and relaunched it, this time claiming to an Amazon subsidiary.
Amazon has confirmed it has no connection to the business.
At least 47 passengers have been killed in a plane crash at an airport in South Korea, officials have said.
Rescuers are attempting to pull people from the wreckage of the plane after it veered off a runway at Muan International Airport and crashed into a wall, becoming engulfed in flames.
The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when it attempted to land, but its landing gear was said to have not fully opened.
Pic: Reuters
Firefighters and rescue team members work in the aftermath of the crash.
Pic: Lee Young-ju/Newsis/AP
Yonhap News Agency reported that a collision with a bird may have caused the malfunction – citing officials.
Footage aired by YTN television showed the moment the plane slammed into the wall at the airport and burst into flames, after skidding off the runway without its landing gear deployed.
Further photos shared by local media showed smoke and flames engulfing much of the plane.
Officials said the blaze has been brought mostly under control and South Korea’s transport ministry said the incident happened at 9.03am local time on Sunday (shortly after midnight in the UK).
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was on its way back from Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the crash.
South Korea’s emergency office said two people had been safely rescued, one passenger and one crew member.
Among those on board were 173 South Koreans and two Thai people, local media reported.
So far almost 50 people are said to have died.
Pic: Reuters
A rescue team prepares at Muan Airport after the crash.
Pic: Maeng Dae-hwan/Newsis/AP
Thick smoke above the airport after the crash.
Pic: Reuters
All domestic and international flights from Muan International Airport have been cancelled in light of the fatal crash.
Acting President Choi Sung-mok ordered a rescue effort, his office said.
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World
Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid
The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.
Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.
Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.
Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.
Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.
“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”
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