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GOLDEN SUN VICTIM SPEAKS OUT

Via ABC Pacific 

Cash-strapped and unable to find a job in the country, university graduate Abraham Tamsen was looking for a way to earn some money, when his cousin sent him a link.

It took him to a website called Golden Sun, with a bright yellow interface and a few blank fields to fill in his personal details.

It seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

All he had to do was sign up and pay a fee and then he could start earning money simply by watching 15-second clips of blockbuster movies and writing short, positive reviews – so he was told.

It cost Mr Tamsen K700 to join on "level D", which was all he could afford.

He was confident he would make the money back quickly.

On Facebook, he had seen people claiming to have made huge profits in just a few weeks through Golden Sun. He got straight to work reviewing movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.

"I thought it would benefit me," he told ABC. "I spent most of my time – almost like 80 or 90 per cent of my daily hours – on this."

Mr Tamsen was linked up with a "regional manager" who went by the name "Michael Wiggins" and claimed to live in Sydney, Australia.

They chatted over the instant messaging app Telegram, but never via phone or video call.

Michael Wiggins gave advice to Mr Tamsen and other team members, encouraging them to sign their friends and family up to Golden Sun so they could all earn bonuses.

He told them Golden Sun was registered in the United Kingdom and had links to Universal Studios and other major movie production companies.

On Facebook, there were even claims that Tesla founder Elon Musk was an investor.

For a while, it was all going so well. Mr Tamsen made two "withdrawals" from his Golden Sun account, which involved requesting that the points he earned from watching movies be converted into cash. A few days later, the physical money landed in his bank account but last week, he went to make a third withdrawal. "Everything went blank," he said.

"I can't log into my account or even contact the regional managers because their account was deleted on Telegram."

The Golden Sun website has gone offline and its managers' chat messaging and social media accounts have disappeared. 

Mr Tamsen says he now believes the whole thing was an elaborate scam.

"I'm angry," he said.

"But at the same time, I thought to myself 'that was my mistake'. I made the choice to go for that. But anyway, I learned from that."

It's no consolation, but the 25-year-old is not alone.

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