May 10, 2023
(press release)
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Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) is aware of an unfortunate situation whereby online scammers are impersonating the GSA brand and tricking victims into investing in aquaculture operations that do not exist. Such activities are fraudulent, and GSA strongly advises all victims and potential victims to avoid any interaction with the scammers, who are targeting people in India. Here’s how the scam works: The scammers phish for potential victims on WhatsApp, offering an online job with GSA and promising earnings of more than ₹3,000 INR per day. The scammers instruct victims to sign up for an account on an online platform that’s deceitfully branded as GSA under the domains www.gseafood.xyz, www.gseafood.online and www.gseafood.live, among others. Once registered, the scammers instruct victims to electronically transfer funds into their account to begin earning an income. The scammers promise that they will teach victims how to withdraw their earnings, but accounts are shut down before victims are able to do so. Unfortunately, these fraudulent activities are common around the world. Between March 2018 to December 2021, India alone reported more than 250,000 cases of cyberfraud. The official GSA is a well respected member-based nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing responsible seafood production practices through education, advocacy and certification. We operate under the domain www.globalseafood.org. We would never offer a job opportunity through WhatsApp, and we would never ask anyone to invest in aquaculture operations through an online platform. Again, GSA strongly advises all victims and potential victims to avoid any interaction with the scammers whatsoever. Federal agencies like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission offer advice on how to avoid a scam.
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