Mumbai: A 32-year-old man, who works as a deputy manager with an insurance company, lost ₹11.79 lakh after falling prey to prepaid online task fraud. In his police complaint, the Santacruz resident said that he received a WhatsApp message, offering him a part-time job opportunity on November 4. He was asked to rate and review a Delhi-based hotel, and even paid ₹150.
The complainant was then added to a prepaid task group on the Telegram app. The fraudsters had also created a bogus website and induced him to create an account on it. Two days later, the man was asked to transfer ₹59,000 to take up a task. He followed the instructions and subsequently an amount of ₹82,600 reflected as 'earnings' in the account created on the fake website.
When the aggrieved told the scammers that he wished to withdraw his earnings, he was asked to do more tasks to withdraw the previous amounts, the police said. In this manner, the man ended up paying ₹11.79 lakh in six transactions. When the complainant confronted the cons after trying to withdraw his earnings in vain, they sought ₹11 lakh more.
Based on the man's complaint, the police registered a case under the Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) as well as provision 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
FPJ Cyber Secure | FPJ
