Woman loses ₹5.3 lakh to part-time job scam

On Monday, she received a WhatsApp message from a person claiming to be with a recruitment portal of YouTube

Mumbai: A 39-year-old woman came into the grasp of cyber fraud and lost around ₹5.31 lakh to a part-time work-from-home job opportunity for YouTube. The victim, Daphne Fernandes, had recently posted her bio-data on job search websites and mentioned that she was looking for work-from-home opportunities.

Woman loses ₹5.3 lakh to part-time job scam

On Monday, she received a WhatsApp message from a person claiming to be with a recruitment portal, as per the police. The accused further told Fernandes, 39, that she would have to complete simple online tasks to boost the visibility and following of content creators on YouTube, and Fernandes agreed.

“She was given a few tasks, which she completed within an hour. One of the tasks involved paying ₹2,000 on a web page, but she immediately received a payment of ₹2,800, which convinced her that she was dealing with a genuine party. The accused then told her that she could get higher returns if she ‘invested’ higher amounts. Fernandes expressed her willingness to do so, and started following instructions given by the frauds,” said an officer with the Khar police.

From Monday evening to Tuesday night, Fernandes had paid a total of ₹5.31 lakh on various web pages in increasing amounts, the officer added. At every step, she was allegedly told that she could withdraw her ‘investment’ along with her ‘commission’ at any point, but paying more money would get her higher profits.

“The money was paid into different accounts, through net banking and UPI wallets, till Fernandes had no more money left. When she asked for her money back, the accused cut off all contacts and she finally realised that she had been cheated,” the officer said.

Subsequently, she approached the police on Thursday and reported the fraud.

“Since Fernandes had posted her bio-data on job portals, we suspect that the accused had created a recruiter’s account with such portals, which allowed them to access her profile and contact details. We are seeking details from the portals and also conducting technical investigations into the SIM cards and bank accounts used by the accused,” said the officer.

Earlier, on November 29, 2022, HT reported how cybercriminals regularly go through professional networking websites like LinkedIn to identify soft targets who can be exploited for a variety of cybercrimes.