FPJ Cyber Secure: Youth From Govandi Loses ₹5 Lakh After Falling For Part-Time Hotel Review Job Scam

Mumbai: With a promise of earning ₹6,000 per day by reviewing hotels, a youth, who works as a manager at a petrol pump, was duped of ₹5 lakh in a part-time job cyber fraud.

In August, the victim, a resident of Govandi, received a message on WhatsApp offering him a part-time job to rate hotels, take a screenshot and send it to them. For every screenshot, he was told a payment of Rs150 will be made to his account. “They said I can earn Rs6,000 every day,” said the victim.

He was sent two links and asked to rate two hotels and send screenshots.

Then they made him download the Telegram app and join a group where he was asked about his full name, age, sex, occupation, WhatsApp number, location, educational background, and bank account details for money transactions. After sending him Rs150 they told him about the pre-paid task wherein the victim has to send them Rs1000. A couple of ‘tasks’ later, and after making the victim completely trust them, they started to demand bigger amounts starting with Rs20,000-50,000.

Victim asked to pay ₹5 lakh

He was assured of sending the commission amount and task amount in the form of crypto coins. He was told that in order to convert the coins into cash, he would have to pay Rs5 lakhs and he followed the same and ended up losing Rs4.88 lakh from his three bank accounts, which they assured to return but never did.

Police have registered a case and are checking the four telegram groups which interacted with the victim as part of the investigation.