Mumbai: A 23-year-old man working in an IT company lost Rs 3.93 lakh after falling prey to prepaid online task fraud.
The scammers had used a specially designed web link on which the victim could see his earnings, but when the victim tried to withdraw his money, he was informed that his account had been frozen and was directed to pay more money to defreeze his account and withdraw his earnings. The victim then realised that he had been conned.
How the victim was lured
According to the police, on August 8, the victim received a phone call from an unknown person offering him a part-time job opportunity. The victim then received a WhatsApp message that contained a link. He was asked to open the link and give reviews to earn money. He also received a ₹200 joining bonus. The scammers then asked the victim to join a Telegram link where he would be getting review tasks. The victim was promised 30% profits on investment.
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He then first invested ₹1000 and received ₹1300 in his bank account. He then invested ₹3000 for ₹4300. Then, the victim was asked to invest more money and he kept following the instructions. He was informed that he would get ₹5.58 lakh profit on investment. A web link was shared with the victim and was told that he could withdraw his earnings from the said link.
Cheating Case registered
However, when he tried to withdraw, the link showed an error, informing him that the account had been frozen and directing the victim to pay more money to claim the earnings and defreeze the account. The victim who had lost ₹3.93 lakh already then realised that he had been conned. He then approached the police and got an offence registered.
The police have received complaints from six other such victims who had lost their money in the same fraud. The police have registered a case under section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
FPJ Cyber Secure | FPJ
