Mira Bhayandar: A 38-year-old homemaker from Mira Road became the latest target of cyber-crime after she was cheated of more than Rs 1.43 lakh by cyber crooks under the guise of facilitating a work-from-home job which could fetch her earnings amounting Rs.2,000 to Rs.3,000 per day.
In her statement to the police the complainant said that she got the offer on her WhatsApp number from an unknown sender followed by a link of a marketing company which offered the earnings on completion of promotional online tasks.
How the crooks won the confidence of the victim
In an apparent bid to win the confidence of the potential target, the cyber crooks transferred small amounts after completion of certain tasks during the initial stages. The woman kept transferring money to complete more tasks and ended up losing a total of Rs. 1,43,286. However, instead of getting back her investment and profit for over a month, the crooks demanded more money for completion of the tasks. Realising she was duped, a complaint was registered at the Naya Nagar police station in Mira Road. An offence under the relevant sections of the IPC and Information Technology Act has been registered against the cyber-crooks. Further investigations were on.
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Mumbai police cautions citizens
According to Cyber Crime Cell under Crime Branch of Mumbai police , the most common form of online frauds are related to banks, online commerce platforms where fraudsters, posing as bank /platform officials, convince the victim to share OTP, KYC updates and sometimes send the links to be clicked to access bank accounts.“People should know that no bank or institution is authorised to demand for bank details or PIN numbers. Unfortunately, educated people are falling prey to online frauds and losing lakhs of rupees,” explained DCP Cyber Crime, Balsingh Rajput.
