A 27-year-old woman lost ₹5.35 lakh to cyber fraudsters who trapped her with the lure of task-based earnings. In his police complaint, the Ghatkopar resident said that she was virtually approached by a woman named Harshita Sharma, who introduced herself from the HR department of Sandbox company.
The con told the complainant that the job was for the role of a social media promoter and she would have to post reviews of hotels and restaurants on the internet. For each review, the woman would get ₹150, said Sharma, adding that the payment will increase with every task. She was then added to a Telegram group, Google Business 188, and assigned four tasks. After paying her ₹200, the con asked the complainant to take up a ‘welfare task’, saying that she would need to pay ₹2,000 for the same. Once the task gets completed, she would get ₹2,800 in return, which actually happened.
However, the aggrieved was given just ₹2,200 upon paying ₹5,000 for the next task. The woman continued to buy assignments in hope of earning double returns and ended up paying more than ₹5 lakh. When she asked the fraudsters about the returns, she was told to pay ₹5 lakh more. “I told them that I don't have more money and asked them to return my earlier amount. But they refused and I realised that I have been cheated by them,” she said in her statement to the police. The aggrieved then registered a complaint at the online cyber crime portal followed by a complaint at the Park Site police station in Vikhroli.
