Gurugram woman duped of ₹28 lakh under guise of rating english movies online

On Wednesday, a similar incident was reported from Noida when a city resident was duped of ₹12 lakh in the same way through a link on messaging app Telegram

A Gurugram woman was allegedly duped of more than ₹28 lakh by unidentified people on the pretext of earning easy money by rating movies on a fake web portal, police said on Thursday, in the second such fraud reported in two days in the national capital region.

In the latest fraud, the woman, Meha Sethi, 38, a resident of Sector 28, has filed a complaint in this regard, on the basis of police have registered an FIR. (Representational Image)

On Wednesday, a similar incident was reported from Noida when a city resident was duped of ₹12 lakh in the same way through a link on messaging app Telegram.

In the latest fraud, the woman, Meha Sethi, 38, a resident of Sector 28, has filed a complaint in this regard, on the basis of police have registered an FIR.

In her complaint, Sethi said that she allegedly joined a closed group, also on Telegram, after receiving a random message in December last year. She was told that she will be working as an agent to rate movies for a “reputed American movie chain”. The cyber frauds also created a fake website similar to that of the firm with a secured agent log-in portal, police officers said.

It was after the cyberfrauds refused to repay her principal amount and hefty profits shown to have earned by her that she suspected foul play. Sethi told police that she was also asked to deposit more money in the name of income tax deduction.

“Initially, the cyber frauds made her spend small amounts and they repaid her the principal with hefty commissions. They then started giving her more tasks for rating movies and increased the amount which she needed to deposit as investment for profits every time. She lost ₹28.44 lakh in total,” Amit Kumar, station house officer of cybercrime (west) police station, said.

On her complaint, an FIR was registered against the unidentified people under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at the cybercrime police station (west) on Wednesday evening, said police, adding that they have initiated an investigation into the matter.

Police were gathering details of all the bank accounts to which Sethi transferred money to track the suspect, the SHO said.

According to Sethi, she lost all her savings to the cyberfraud. She did not respond to HT’s queries for comments on Thursday.

In the Noida case, the 33-year-old woman said she received a text message on Telegram and a hyperlink, which said that she could earn money by rating movies. “I was told to pay ₹10,000 and click 30 times on the link to get double the amount. After paying, I was told to pay the amount again, and was assured by other people on the group that sometimes one has to pay twice in order to get double the amount,” the woman said.

In similar subsequent transactions, the woman ended up paying ₹12 lakh to the suspects over three months up till March 15. “Each time I asked them to return my money, they told me to pay ₹30,000 or ₹42,000 in order to get my money back. In some instances, I was told that I have been given a ”superior rating” , and that was why it was taking them longer to return the amount. Ultimately, I paid ₹12.05 lakh to the frauds but they are not transferring the money back to my account,” the complainant said.

The Noida police have also launched an investigation into the matter and were yet ti make a breakthrough in the case.