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Марія БровінськаWork
12 June 2025, 09:00
2025-06-12
"If the 'mammoth' broke, or you made a mistake, they could force you to work standing up all day." How are the 'offices' that are constantly looking for employees arranged, how much can you earn there, and how to determine that the employer is a scammer
Ukrainian IT specialists, when looking for a job, often come across offers from so-called «offices» — organizations that masquerade as a serious company, but in fact, in most cases, are engaged in scams. dev.ua often describes such cases, but today we decided to figure out what these offices are, what they are like, and how to recognize them among thousands of employers. The text contains several eloquent stories from former employees of «offices» and candidates who almost «fell into» «office» work.
Ukrainian IT specialists, when looking for a job, often come across offers from so-called «offices» — organizations that masquerade as a serious company, but in fact, in most cases, are engaged in scams. dev.ua often describes such cases, but today we decided to figure out what these offices are, what they are like, and how to recognize them among thousands of employers. The text contains several eloquent stories from former employees of «offices» and candidates who almost «fell into» «office» work.
Content
What are «offices»?
«Offices» became popular about 10 years ago. The crisis, lack of money, and the desire for quick money during the crisis prompted enterprising businessmen to create scam organizations that would enjoy the trust of ordinary Ukrainians.
So, an «office» is a certain organization whose goal is to get money from people by any means. And most of the time this way is illegal — blackmail, threats, deception, etc. They lure employees to such companies with high salaries in dollars, a luxurious life, fraudulent romance, which is broadcast through popular bloggers, often with patriotism, because they need to deceive Russians. But in reality, they deceive everyone, including Ukrainians, and criminal liability is provided for fraud.
Among the areas of work of the «offices», the most popular are cooperation with onlyfans, escorts, theft of bank data, and exchanges.
The task of the employees of the first two directions is to «shake» more money from the interlocutor. To do this, they use communication in various messengers, sometimes conversations on the phone using automatic voice replacement for a female one. Usually, «offices» with sexual overtones use Viber, WhatsApp due to the inability to completely delete chats and messages without consequences. The «office» employee interests the potential victim and offers to pay for showing an intimate part of the body, meeting, sex on the phone or even a real date with a girl (often a random prostitute). Among the candidates in this type, preference is given to those who have had experience. For example, selling intimate photos in various Telegram channels.
Theft of bank details and fraudulent withdrawals of funds from cards and accounts are usually carried out by people who know how to inspire trust. Their target audience is most often the elderly and those who are poorly informed in the field of digital security.
Another type of activity of the «offices» is investing. Clients are persuaded to invest large sums of money in non-existent stocks, businesses, etc. There are also offices selling unnecessary goods — under the guise of a very profitable promotion, the buyer is «sold» an unnecessary product at a triple price, and a gift is also given with it. The deal is made only upon advance payment to the card, and the goods usually never reach the addressees.
The structure of the «offices» is also mostly typical. Usually, the main unit of the «office», which actually «makes» people money, is the call center.
Here, employees are constantly «sitting on the phone» and conducting the first stages of negotiations with the victim. Above them are «seniors» — they «close the phone», that is, they put pressure on the client and complete the final stages.
Even higher up are the leads who monitor individual groups of call center employees and control the entire process and results of work.
In addition, «offices» mostly have a well-developed HR department — its task is to introduce the system and hire as many employees as possible so that the «business» becomes larger.
How much they pay in the «offices» is a separate question. Currently, the standard is from $1,000 and 3-5% for a «successful call.»
Office stories
We spoke with several IT professionals and digital specialists who have encountered «offices.» Their stories are different, but they clearly outline how «offices» are structured. For security reasons, the names of the characters in the materials have been changed.
Roman, Internet marketing specialist
In 2022, I was looking for my first job in marketing, so I went to one of these sites. Having found an attractive vacancy for «Marketing Assistant», I reviewed the job description and information about the company itself. Of course, I was alarmed by the fact that the marketing agency had less than 50 followers on social media and no significant case studies, but I decided to give it a try.
We communicated with the recruiter mainly on Viber, where they gave me the metro station where I needed to arrive, and then call to clarify the address. Only later did I understand what the conspiracy was for. At that time, the Arena City business center had a bad reputation, with most of the floors occupied by offices. Of course, that’s where they took me.
A «guide» will be waiting for you at the door with a special card that opens the door, where a security guard is sitting. First, you talk to a recruiter, then you fill out a questionnaire. Meanwhile, the company representative gently prepares you for the fact that this is not exactly the job you expected.
Sometimes they take away phones. Then they ask you to fill out a form with your passport details (a foreign passport is also accepted) and your actual place of residence.
In my case, they gathered a full group of candidates, brought them to a room, where each of them received an A4 sheet of paper and a pen. Then, for 2-4 hours, you communicate, write down various scripts, recruiters explain the principles of work and prepare you for the first working day. During the break, I left the room, but I had no more direct experience with office placement.
At that time, it seems that the 6th floor was completely occupied by just one office. Lots of rooms, people, music and the smell of IQOS and GLO could be heard from everywhere.
In 2025, my friend decided to also look for his first job in the field of marketing. So he submitted several applications to Work.ua. Sometimes in a telephone conversation they directly said that it was a scam office. However, an interesting offer came, the vacancy «Marketing Assistant», salary — rate 30,000 + bonuses, fixed work schedule 5/2. In the evening, I heard a story similar to mine, where he was offered to work in a scam.
Anna, Internet marketing specialist
My first interview (at that time I was still green and didn’t know what it was) for the position of «SMM assistant» turned into an offer of a job in the office. When I came for the interview, there were many candidates (of course, they took everyone), then there were several hours of training, they taught «theory», then suspicions arose that something was wrong! The end result was that you had to create a fake page on social networks (with someone else’s photo of the girl) and on dating sites, communicate with men and find out in conversation how much they earn (age 25 + earnings over 50,000 UAH), and then sell them the cryptocurrency exchange rate. Phj I found out about this after A FEW HOURS, at first they kept quiet about it.
I was in shock, I communicated with people who also came for an interview and it turned out that they came for other vacancies (designer, manager, etc.). Then the most interesting thing was the internship! I had to hand over my things and phone, we went into a room with transparent glass walls, a lot of people sitting at computers, an oppressive atmosphere. And I ran away.
The second situation happened recently: I came for an interview as a «content maker», waited for 30 minutes. During this time, while I was talking to the security guard and finding a shelf with Russian literature (cringe), a girl came out, and I asked her WHAT exactly the company does. She answered briefly: «chats.»
Petro, PM
Here is my story of working in a «black office»: a brief experience in financial schemes. After a week-long break from work, I decided to actively look for a new job. I started browsing job sites, and suddenly an HR manager I knew wrote to me with an offer to consider a position in an office supporting clients in the financial sector. I was interested, and I agreed to come for an interview. The office turned out to be a closed type: entry was made through a special system — first a call to the phone, then the door was opened.
After a short interview, I was immediately offered to come to work the next day. The manager explained that we were working «cold» — that is, we were engaged in initial contacts with potential clients from Russia and the Baltic countries. To do this, it was necessary to come up with a new name and surname. Particular attention was paid to the language: no Surzhyk or Ukrainian — only pure, confident Russian. It was also necessary to come up with a legend: where I studied, how many years I have been working in the field, in order to inspire trust in the interlocutors. I took a fictitious name and education from Moscow State University. I began to study sales scripts. All materials had to be exclusively in electronic form — no notebooks or pieces of paper that could indicate unofficial activities.
The working system was strange: login was through third-party software, and the senior had an emergency exit button for all computers. Music was playing loudly in the office — it stimulated speaking loudly, confidently, and seemed to create an atmosphere of trading on Wall Street. They sold literally everything: shares of Gazprom, Sberbank, gold, coffee, oil, currency — depending on the news and market events.
If a client was ready to invest, but ultimately refused (the so-called «mammoth failed»), or you made a mistake, they could make you work standing up all day. This is an old punishment in this field. When the opposite happened — the client was «closed» — they wrote the manager’s nickname and the amount of the deal on the board, rang the bell, and everyone applauded.
The salary was paid weekly — 1 or 2 times, in dollars. The percentages from sales were good. Once, before my eyes, a woman was convinced to invest $35,000. Everything changed when the office was searched: a search warrant, handcuffs, and equipment was seized. Later, we were released on a receipt. It looked like a «reminder» to the management about the need to share. I quit that same day. Two days later, the office was working again, they even tried to bring me back, but I finally understood that working in «black» offices is dangerous.
Victor, content maker
In 2016, I briefly entered the world of «office» work. I was offered the position of client manager — calls, sales, communication. I didn’t really understand where I was going until I received internal documents and a sales chart on the first day. It quickly became clear that this was a classic scam office where Russians and Kazakhs were being robbed.
The problem is that it’s not immediately clear where you’re going, and most people, once they start working there, rarely quit on the first day. They have well-established manipulative schemes for «pulling in» workers.
Despite the fact that it was an outright scam, the atmosphere in the team turned out to be even worse: toxicity, a complete lack of empathy, humanity, and ethics.
I lasted exactly a month: closed zero sales, received only a fixed rate — and simply disappeared. Without explanation, without apology. Interestingly, that office was closed down a month after my disappearance. And it was symbolic: in such places you don’t just waste time — you lose a part of yourself there.
How to recognize and deal with offices
Recently, sites like Work.ua and robota.ua have begun to actively combat such scam structures, closing user profiles and reviewing vacancies more carefully. However, these sites still remain the main source of traffic for workers to such offices. dev.ua asked the most popular job boards for comment.
Work.ua provided a detailed comment, while robota.ua ignored the request.
«The vast majority of blockings carried out by Work.ua moderators are related to „offices“. In 2023, the number of accounts blocked by the site’s moderators is 35,459. In total, the department checks over 20,000 accounts every month. This is an energy-consuming business. We find most of the scammers when we check companies. But then we additionally „catch“ and find them in each area: when checking vacancies, the validity of companies, when we receive complaints about vacancies and process them. Sometimes 30 seconds are enough to figure out whether a company is fraudulent, and sometimes we spend half an hour,» Work.ua noted. The moderators now carry out such a «cleaning» every day.
As dev.ua was told by the Work.ua press service, 95% of scammers are «offices» that lure money. The other 5% are material investments (with offers to pay for training courses or open an account and issue a card to pay future salaries), erotic services, marriage agencies, streaming platforms, MLM (the problem with them is that they impersonate other companies). By the way, we started blocking «marriages» and streaming platforms on the site back in 2022 .
Among the key signs that a searcher has reached the office are the following:
Promised salary: from 15,000 UAH per week — there is no upper limit, payments are made weekly in foreign currency.
These scammers' job openings are disguised as positions such as customer service manager, service manager, sales manager, etc.
No experience is required. The main thing is to be active, learn quickly, and want to earn a lot.
«Offices» are located throughout Ukraine, mainly in large cities.
On Work.ua, «office workers» make up as much as 40% of the verified scammers. «In May, our moderators reviewed 24,000 accounts for various reasons. Of these, 9,200 were blocked (almost 40%). In April, 26,200 were checked, of which 11,200 were blocked (43% of those checked),» the company adds.
Verified employers, Work.ua notes, are not only new registrations, but also old ones that, for various reasons, should be verified again (for example, they changed the name, website, or company description).
Scammers everywhere
Unfortunately, scammers operate not only on job search sites. They are even more active on Telegram. Here are the most popular schemes:
Subscribe to the Telegram channel and receive from $1000
Promised salary: from 30,000 UAH and more.
Scheme: the most popular millionaire channels on Telegram distribute messages with the appeal: «Ukraine is full of vacancies, where even beginners are paid from $1,000, and the majority of the population still works for pennies, thinking that without experience you can’t find a job, you need a good resume and higher education. You went in, browsed, chose a vacancy with a salary of 30,000 UAH (no lower) and are working for a living. Subscribe and get good money, even if you don’t know anything.»
What is the fraud? Channel administrators mislead users and divert traffic to different Telegram channels. The purpose of this scheme is to resell the channel with a different name or business to employers. Against the backdrop of a shortage of personnel, employers pay administrators to advertise vacancies. Of course, no one guarantees the quality of work or compliance with the declared salaries in Telegram channels, because salaries vary, and there are those that are significantly less than 30,000 UAH.
Need employees with a «work ethic»
Promised salary: 550-2,500 UAH per day.
Scheme: the user receives a message on the phone with the text: «Hello, I am a regional manager and am currently looking for part-time employees. You can easily fulfill sales orders in your free time using your mobile phone. Age: 22-60 years old. Requirements: Disciplined, with good personal qualities and work ethic. Salary 550-2,500 UAH per day. The tasks are simple, you can work anytime and anywhere. Contact us at [channel name].»
What is the scam? Similar messages are sent to Ukrainian users from abroad, as evidenced by the careless translation of the ad and correspondence with the administrator, who communicates in «crooked» script texts. The goal of the scheme is to seize personal data that Ukrainian users are asked to send in order to register for work.
Place an ad and get paid
Promised salary: from a few dozen hryvnias per ad.
Scheme: scammers offer work with payment for placing ads from personal accounts of job seekers on popular classifieds platforms (buying, selling, exchanging, etc.). They provide the necessary texts and illustrations for various goods, which must be published at a price significantly lower than the market price. When buyers contact the job seeker, he must direct them to the employer’s telegram.
What is the fraud? After the searcher brings a buyer, the «employer» blocks the searcher on Telegram and disappears from contact. No one pays money for placing ads. The classifieds site later also blocks the searcher’s accounts. Moreover, they are also covered by well-known companies .
The Work.ua team has created a map of the evolution of scammers — over time, scammers invent new methods to post unreliable vacancies and use other services on job search sites and lure job seekers into their webs. Here’s what you need to pay attention to.
The evolution of fraud
1. Every company after registration on Work.ua undergoes verification: the moderation department reviews the newly created account, and often it is at this stage that blocking occurs. The company can provide its documents to confirm the validity. The first thing scammers started with was sending someone else’s documents downloaded from the Internet to prevent instant blocking.
2. Then they started adding documents of real sole proprietors or LLCs. The scammers made deals with them (most likely for money), and when the moderators called the owners of the documents, they confirmed that they had registered and were really looking for staff. So we stopped relying on calls and started paying more attention to the companies' websites.
3. Then the scammers began to hastily create sites where half of the sections did not work, and the pages were filled out very primitively.
4. When the fake sites didn’t work, the scammers used websites of verified real companies and Instagram profiles with a bunch of followers that inspired trust. As in the second point, those who shared their websites and social media profiles with the scammers confirmed that they were the ones registering and looking for staff. But no less than the facts, we also rely on our «gut feeling» and still found and continue to find other evidence that the company is a scam.
5. When it became very difficult for the scammers to work during the day, some of them «went into the night». While the moderators were not working, they tried to use the database. But in the morning the scammers were immediately blocked. Now we have found a technical solution and this path is also blocked.
6. Then they started to recover their old accounts or also made agreements with the owners of trusted companies that had been cooperating with us for years. Having gained access to the accounts, the fraudsters began to «do their business» there.
Instead of a conclusion: how to minimize the risk of encountering a fraudulent «office»
Before the interview, search for information about the company on the Internet, check out the website, social networks, and read reviews.
Ask recruiters as many details as possible about the job: the more accurate answers you get, the fewer doubts you will have.
Turn on your critical thinking. Getting a high salary without knowledge and experience for a few hours a day is a scam. If you are confused about whether the real salary is indicated in the vacancy, look at the corresponding position in other companies. This way you will have a general understanding of how much they pay on average in the market.
If you notice a suspicious vacancy, report it to the customer support of the job search sites.
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