Gurugram man duped of ₹72 lakh by cyber fraudsters

A Gurugram resident was cheated of over ?72 lakh by cyber fraudsters who lured him with an online job to review and rate tourist destinations. The suspects, who are yet to be arrested, had created a fake webpage of a travel agency and paid the victim incentives to gain his trust. They later asked him to transfer money as an investment for future repayments with additional incentives. An FIR has been registered against unidentified suspects under Section 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

Gurugram: A city resident was allegedly cheated of more than ₹72 lakh by cyber fraudsters on the pretext of reviewing and rating tourist destinations on the internet, Gurugram police said on Friday.

Gurugram man duped of ₹72 lakh by cyber fraudsters

Investigators said the victim, identified as Akshay Yadav, (35), is a resident of Sector 43. He had received a message on Telegram for an online job on February 27 this year. Police said the job offer was from a woman who got him connected with two other women suspects after he expressed interest to work for them.

As per police, the suspects, who are yet to be arrested, had offered Yadav ₹3,000 to ₹4,000 per day for reviewing and rating the tourist destinations.

A senior police officer said that before being tasked to review and rate the destinations, Yadav was told that he was being hired for a reputed travel agency. “The suspects had created a fake webpage of the travel agency. To make Yadav believe that everything was genuine, he was made to register himself on the fake webpage,” he said.

“On March 1, as soon as Yadav filled up the details which were being tracked by the fraudsters, the incentive was paid which made the victim believe that he had got hold of a lucrative job. He was further paid about ₹2.1 lakh as incentives for giving ratings on the fake webpage of the travel firm,” the officer said.

Police said the suspects later started asking Yadav to transfer money in their bank accounts as an investment for future repayments with additional incentives.

“Yadav, after earning hefty incentives in the first few days, went on to deposit money in the account numbers the suspects provided till April 18. By the time he realised that he was a victim of cyber fraud, it was too late,” the officer added.

On Yadav’s complaint, an FIR was registered against unidentified suspects under Section 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Cyber Crime (east) police station on Thursday, said police.

Subhash Boken, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said an investigation is underway and the suspects will be traced at the earliest.