Woman loses ₹7.23 lakh in part-time job scam

A Mumbai woman lost ?7.23 lakh in a part-time job scam after receiving a message on WhatsApp. She was lured into performing tasks and paying money for rewards before being defrauded. A case has been registered against unknown accused under sections 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

MUMBAI: A woman allegedly lost around ₹7.23 lakh in a part-time job scam.

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According to the NM Joshi Marg police, the complainant, Payal Dolasiya, 27, an accountant with a Lower Parel-based firm, on April 17, 2023, received a message on her WhatsApp, offering a job involving boosting YouTube subscriptions.

When the Dahisar resident clicked on the link in the message, she was taken to the video sharing site where she liked two channels as instructed and received ₹60.

“Thereafter the woman was given a job code and asked to join a Telegram channel. She was then given various tasks. When she paid requisite money for the particular tasks, she was rewarded. When the woman paid ₹580 and performed the assigned task, she received ₹754 as reward. When she performed the second task and paid ₹9,900, she received ₹12,838,” the police officer said.

Later, the woman took a personal loan of ₹6.27 lakh from a bank. Soon after the amount was credited in her bank account, a sum of ₹7.23 lakh got debited in fraudulent transactions.

She immediately got in touch with the Telegram channel run by the frauds. When she threatened to report the matter to the police, if they did not refund her money, she was asked to pay ₹10 lakh to get her money back.

“After realising that she was duped, the woman approached us. We have registered a case against unknown accused under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000,” a police officer said.

The police are checking accounts in which the money was transferred and have written to banks to identify the accused.