FPJ Cyber Secure: Woman Falls Prey To Online Task Fraud, Loses ₹11 Lakh

A 30-year-old woman, in a span of four days, lost ₹11.53 lakh in an online task fraud. 

The fraudster offered a work from home opportunity to the victim and gave her ₹600 initially to gain her trust. They then induced the victim to pay ₹11.53 lakh to earn bigger returns.

According to the police, the victim, a resident of Dombivali, has her account in a Malad based bank and her husband works in an IT company in Vikhroli. On October 18, the victim received a WhatsApp message from a woman who identified herself as Maya. The said woman offered a work from home opportunity to the victim and shared a link with her.

Fraudsters ask woman to join Telegram link

Through the link, the victim was made to join a Telegram link and on completion of certain tasks, she was paid ₹600. Once the fraudsters gained trust of the victim, they induced her to invest bigger amounts and from October 18 till October 21, the victim ended up paying ₹11.53 lakh in the online tasks in nine different transactions, police said.

When the demand for money kept continuing, the victim informed that she did not have more money to invest. The fraudsters then told her to arrange money from others and invest after which she realised that she had been duped. The victim then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter on Wednesday. The police have registered a case under sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.