On Friday alone, four individuals filed complaints with the city’s cyber crime police that they had been lured by cyber criminals promising part-time jobs online and cheated them of their money. The police who are trying to track down the accused, said that increasingly educated people are falling into the trap, despite awareness campaigns about such cyber frauds.
A person approaches the victim on social media or on instant messaging apps offering lucrative returns on money for a set of online tasks including subscribing to YouTube videos and the like. Initially, fraudsters give back good returns luring the victim further and once they make a big investment, they turn incommunicado. The Cyber Crime Police have appealed to people not to fall into this trap, a new modus operandi that seems to be in vogue in the city of late.
Pawan Kumar Jalwadi, a 34-year-old engineer, complained to the Whitefield Cyber Crime Station on Friday that he was lured by conman who made away with his savings worth ₹12,35,000. Mr. Kumar said he was approached by one Shristi Yadav on social media and offered a part time job with an exciting offer. She also told him about online trading and few tasks to complete following which the money would be doubled within hours. Pawan followed her instructions initially and got a good return on his investment. Little did he know that it was a trap laid to lure him to invest more. Once he invested a total of ₹12.3 lakh in different stages and exhausted his savings, Shristi Yadav went incommunicado. Realizing he was cheated, Pawan rushed to the police station and filed a complaint seeking help to get back his money. The police are trying to track down the trail of money and working out how to block the fund transfer at different stages.
Second case
Within an hour and half of this, Pooja Shetty, a 29-year-old private firm employee, walked into the station with similar complaint seeking help to get back ₹3 lakh which she was asked to transfer to the conman’s account. She said she had been cheated by cyber frauds promising a part-time job and lured her to invest ₹3 lakh for a quick return after completion of tasks. The accused went incommunicado as soon as she transferred the funds.
Two more incidents
On the same day, two more similar cases were reported. Anil Kumar, a private firm employee also filed a complaint with Central Cyber Crime Police on Friday that he wad lured with a part-time online job offer and the accused and made away with ₹73,000. Aniket Das, 29, from Nagawara, complained to the East Division Cyber Crime Police on Friday that he lost ₹90,860 to a conman who lured him with a part-time job offer of liking and subscribing to YouTube videos. The accused asked him to make initial deposits for quick returns and vanished soon after he deposited the amount.
