Mumbai cyber safe: Man loses ₹32 lakh to part-time job fraud

Mumbai: A 29-year-old resident of Ambernath lost Rs32.85 lakh within 12 days to fraudsters who promised an opportunity to earn Rs300 to Rs6,000 every day. The complainant had surfed the internet for part-time opportunities. 

On April 1, he received a WhatsApp message about a freelance job of liking and subscribing YouTube and Instagram accounts of celebrities, with a customer executive saying that the applicant information was obtained from a recruitment platform. 

To begin with, he was given certain online tasks for which he received Rs300 in his bank account on a couple of occasions. Trusting the model of earning more by paying certain amounts, he kept investing and lost a hefty sum. He realised about the fraud when he didn’t get any returns, following which he approached the police on Monday.

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.