On August 13, graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University Abdulmujeeb Busari applied for a job via job search platform Indeed. It was a remote transcription role under the ‘Opencipher Tech’ listing. Six days later, Busari received an official shortlisting notification via email.
Although Busari had applied to Opencipher Tech, he received the shortlisting notification from Worknesta. This email contained a link that would direct Busari to a workspace where he set up his account and accessed available transcription modules.
Weeks and completed tasks later, Busari found that data on his Worknesta backend logs had been mismatched. Worknesta cross-graded his submission against a completely different answer key, and subsequently refused to pay him N47,736 despite reviewing his submissions and approving them for payout.
HOW IT HAPPENED
“The architecture of this exploitation relies on an intentional dual-identity framework. The operators established a trusted corporate hiring presence on Indeed under the front name Opencipher Tech.”
These were the words of Busari when he narrated his ordeal with Worknesta. He had applied for a remote transcription vacancy via Indeed on August 13. However, he would go on to receive a congratulatory message from another identity for this vacancy.
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“On August 13, I applied for a remote transcription vacancy through the Indeed platform under the Opencipher Tech listing. On August 19, I received an official shortlisting notification via email.
“Upon being onboarded, I was immediately migrated off the open Indeed interface and funnelled into a closed, private web dashboard workspace managed by the parent entity, Worknesta Inc. (a firm corporately registered at 4425 North Market Street, 3rd Floor, Wilmington, Delaware, 19802, USA).”
Busari completed his onboarding on Worknesta’s workspace and was assigned transcription tasks. Within 24 hours of being assigned the tasks, Busari completed and delivered them.
“My initial assignment was to complete an intensive module consisting of six independent transcription tasks,” he told FIJ on September 15.
“I successfully processed and delivered four general tasks and two highly specialised medical tasks within a rapid 24-hour turnaround window,” he added.
In addition to four general transcription tasks, Busari was assigned two medical files to transcribe. The general transcription tasks were graded and scored 99% each, exceeding the 97% accuracy standard required for payment.
However, Worknesta’s grading system marked and graded his two medical transcription tasks titled Adverse Drug Reactions in Female Patients (Part 1 & 2) 78% and 75% respectively.
Busari queried the disparity between general task grades and those of the medical tasks. He asked questions, and found answers.
”A deep technical audit of my backend logs exposed a malicious data mismatch: the workspace administrators had cross graded my eight-minute audio files against a completely different, 25-minute answer key meant for a separate human resources project. This intentional cross-grading mathematically engineered an artificial failure to justify a total labour clawback.”
Despite the medical tasks discrepancy, Busari’s primary workspace dashboard compiled his overall milestone delivery. The interface displayed a green verification checkmark with the text: “All reviewed — ₦47,736 queued for payout on Sep 1, 2026.” The system’s internal financial calculator had validated his labour and locked in his total earnings.
However, on September 1, Busari got nothing from Worknesta. He told FIJ that the company withheld his pay.
“On the scheduled September 1st payday, management completely withheld my remuneration ( N47, 736), retroactively enforcing an unwritten ‘all-or-nothing module threshold’ that was never disclosed during hiring.”
“I immediately contested the breach, explicitly telling the support desk that their structured system of wage theft had been identified and demanding the immediate unconditional release of my wages.
“Management extended a condescending ‘one-time courtesy’ offer to re-review my tasks. Recognising this as a delay tactic by an entity that had already broken its contract, I turned it down, stating that a 5-to-7 day review timeline was unacceptable.
“In less than 24 hours, the desk sent a retaliatory email claiming the re-review still fell below their payout threshold. They subtly attacked my human psychology by telling me I needed a mandatory ‘live session on accuracy and how to improve’. I immediately notified their local operations handler that if my remuneration was not cleared within 48 hours, I would escalate the fight beyond their closed dashboards.”
BUSARI REPORTED WORKNESTA TO AUTHORITIES
When the 48-hour window Busari gave Worknesta elapsed without resolution, he reported the matter to several authorities.
He filed a formal wage theft complaint with the State of Delaware Labour Board. The Office of Labor Law Enforcement officially logged the dispute under Case ID: I2027-09-08-002 (Busari Abdulmujeeb Ikeola’nabi v. Worknesta Inc.) and, due to international contractor boundaries, formally routed the docket to the federal level.
“The federal Wage and Hour Division of the U.S Department of Labor accepted the escalation, successfully processed through their federal enforcement portal and currently undergoing human triage review following my online submission referral logged on September 9, 2026.”
Busari also escalated the matter to Indeed, the job search platform where the transcription vacancy was advertised.
”I submitted my technical evidence logs to Indeed’s Trust & Safety division. Following an independent corporate audit, Indeed completely verified the fraud, permanently banned the employer, and scrubbed the “Opencipher Tech” profile from their global network.”
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INDEED LABELLED ‘OPENCIPHER TECH’ A FRAUDULENT ACCOUNT
Unsatisfied with Indeed’s first response, Busari probed further, demanding accountability from Indeed.
Indeed then responded days later with another email pointing him to Section A of its Terms of Service. Indeed noted that it is not responsible for the content of the job listings it displays. However, it said in the email, “Indeed has a large and well-sourced Trust and Safety team that works diligently to identify and prevent fraudulent activity on the site.”
“In situations like this where a fraudulent account has slipped through, we work to remedy the situation as soon as possible,” the email added.
In his follow up email to Indeed, Busari had requested that they preserve Opencipher Tech’s digital tracking logs. Indeed acknowledged this request, but refused to grant it unless it came with a relevant court order.
DATA ALTERATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE
Busari told FIJ that, following the escalation of the matter, Worknesta began to alter relevant data in his workspace’s backend.
“Realising that international law enforcement was closing in, Worknesta management panicked and resorted to criminal data destruction,” he told FIJ on September 15.
“Over the weekend, platform administrators manually accessed my live profile database to alter the system parameters and destroy the digital paper trail,” he added.
According to Busari, they completely wiped out the numerical “TOTAL EARNED: N47,736” financial tracking fields. Also, he claimed that Worknesta altered the system task tracking parameter from “6/10” to “6/6”. This, according to him, was to retroactively change the contract terms and make it look like a fully completed but failed project module.
However, Busari had kept timestamped screenshots of every dashboard metric beforehand.
“Following my subsequent whistleblower updates on X and LinkedIn mapping these data shifts straight to their local Lagos recruiter, Ayodeji Adeyemi (a UNILAG Computer Science graduate whose public resume directly lists him as an app tester for Opencipher and Recruiter for Worknesta), the entity went into total collapse.
“Yesterday (September 14), Worknesta pulled down their entire functional platform network. They have hidden their active workspace behind a generic splash screen reading “Scheduled Maintenance,” explicitly writing: “the introductory paid module is being temporarily withdrawn”. Concurrently, Ayodeji Adeyemi has completely wiped his public activity timeline from LinkedIn to evade tracking.”
According to Busari, a few days after his LinkedIn post calling out Worknesta and Ayodeji, Ayodeji made his account private and he was no longer tagged to the post (Busari had initially tagged him to the post).
“But now, I can’t even find his account on linkedln anymore,” Busari added.
However, Eleven days after powering down, Worknesta sent Busari an email.
“Worknesta is back online,” the email read.
They had re-engineered the workspace dashboard and introduced a new metric called ‘Module average’. This, according to Busari, was introduced to retroactively deny paying his N47,736.
AYODEJI GIVES EVASIVE RESPONSE
FIJ sent an email to Ayodeji on September 15 to get his response to Busari’s claims. He responded the following day. However, he failed to address critical questions that arose from Busari’s claims.
Ayodeji told FIJ that “Worknesta is a freelance transcription platform”. According to him, “Contractors agree to our Terms, including a module-based payout structure and a 97% accuracy threshold.”
However, Ayodeji didn’t clarify the dual-identity situation which FIJ had raised. FIJ had asked to know who operated Opencipher Tech, what relationship existed between it and Worknesta, and why Busari was added to Worknesta’s workspace after applying to work with Opencipher Tech.
Ayodeji claimed that “the figure on the dashboard was a listed module total, not an approved payment”. However, screenshots from Busari’s dashboard obtained from him showed that all his tasks had been reviewed and queued for payout on September 1. Also, according to Worknesta’s Workspace Guide, “Approved submissions count toward your pay cycle on the 1st and 15th.”
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FIJ sent another email to Ayodeji on September 17 redirecting him to the questions that he had avoided. However, he did not respond.
ANOTHER WHISTLEBLOWER’S EXPERIENCE MIRRORS BUSARI’S
In September, Abuja resident Gwar Shagbaor Cephas took to LinkedIn to share his experience with Worknesta as a remote worker. His experience mirrors that of Busari:
“I applied for a transcription opportunity that was advertised under one company name. However, after I was accepted, the work was presented to me under the name Worknesta.
“I completed assigned transcription tasks under the first module, which contained both Business & Marketing and Medical Transcription tasks. The task dashboard reflected a total value of ₦47,736, and I completed the tasks assigned to me within the required timeframe.
“My completed work remained recorded on my profile.
“The payment period subsequently elapsed without payment. I contacted Worknesta repeatedly seeking clarification and resolution. I have also retained the relevant correspondence, task records and other supporting documentation.”
According to Gwar, he was sharing his experience publicly to seek a clear explanation and resolution regarding the outstanding payment, as well as to encourage other remote workers to verify the actual identity of the company behind an opportunity before investing their time and labour.
The post Worknesta Recruited Ogun Graduate Through ‘Opencipher Tech’ Vacancy. It Scrubbed Off N47,736 Earning Without Paying appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.