"Working at TIK-TOK is interesting": how a Carpathian man wanted to give likes, but instead gave almost UAH 100,000 to scammers

Where it all began

In January 2026, a man was scrolling through his TikTok feed and came across an ad for easy online earnings. After clicking on the link, he downloaded WhatsApp, where he opened a chat with an unknown contact. The man wrote:

«Good afternoon, I’m interested in working at TIK-TOK.»

The interlocutors were happy to outline the terms. The essence of the «work» was supposedly to help online stores with order processing: the employee buys back goods to artificially increase sales and positive reviews, and in return receives a huge commission — 20-40% of the cost of the goods. The money was promised to be instantly transferred to the card.

Bait: how to invest 300 UAH and believe in a miracle

To register on a special «working platform,» the man was told to deposit 300 UAH to the specified bank card. He made the transfer, sent a receipt, and a personal account was indeed created for him. And then a psychological catch happened — 500 UAH was returned to his bank card.

As the court documents dryly but vitally state: «The man was delighted, as he thought it would be a real job with income.»

How money was siphoned off

After a successful «check», the employee was transferred to Telegram, where he was supervised by an administrator named «Natalia». She gave him tasks to buy goods. The man chose a package of 5 tasks and transferred 500 UAH.

Then the classic: while completing tasks, he constantly «did not have enough funds on the balance» in his personal account, so he had to add his own real money. The amounts were constantly increasing: first 319 UAH, then 1391 UAH, 3252 UAH, 8187 UAH.

The scammers' appetites also grew. In February, to «complete the tasks,» the victim began making very large transfers to the cards of various individuals (so-called drops): UAH 19,303; UAH 5,300; UAH 22,200.

«Tax» on withdrawal and final

When the virtual balance of the Carpathian showed a beautiful figure of 239,250 UAH, he decided to withdraw them. «Nataliya» reported that you can withdraw only 180,000 UAH, but there is a nuance — you have to pay tax. Moreover, the account for paying this tax is valid for only 30 minutes.

While right at the bank branch, the man gave the fraudsters another 35,788 UAH (in two transactions: 25,000 and 10,788 UAH) and sent the receipts.

Then the administrator said that the funds would arrive in 5 hours and 30 minutes, and that we just had to wait. When the time was up and there was no money, «Natalia» said that he «completed the task late» and began to demand that he continue working.

Only at this stage did the victim realize that it was a scam and contacted the cyber police. The total amount of losses amounted to 96,540 UAH.

What’s up with the case now?

The police have opened criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (fraud). Investigators have already gained access to banking secrecy and have begun tracking the movement of funds.

As it turned out, the money was scattered across the cards of various Ukrainian banks (A-Bank, Monobank, etc.), after which it was immediately converted into currency, shuffled between the accounts of fake persons, and even withdrawn abroad — in particular, to the accounts of the Georgian JSC BANK OF GEORGIA. The investigation is ongoing, and the court granted the police permission to access statements and geolocations of fraudsters' authorizations in bank applications.