PUNE At least ten people have approached Chandannagar police stating that they were defrauded to the tune of ₹25.85 lakh by cybercriminals under the guise of task fraud.
The incidents took place between July 1 and August 25, said police.
Under task fraud, people are contacted on mobile numbers for work-from-home jobs. They are told to generate likes for content on social media, including audio and video material and lured with good money in return.
One of the complainants has been identified as Vaishali Vinod Gupta, a resident of Kharadi.
The accused through a job bait trapped Gupta with a prospective freelancing job in the form of working from home through online tasks. They told her that if she generated likes for their content on social media, including audio and video materials, she would be rewarded with handsome benefits provided her likes and reviews garnered favourable viewer engagement online.
The scamsters managed to siphon off an aggregate of ₹25.85 lakhs from the victims using online channels.
Initially, the fraudsters provided a small sum of money to lend credibility to their claims and later soon severed all contacts by blocking the victims’ mobile numbers.
{{/usCountry}}Initially, the fraudsters provided a small sum of money to lend credibility to their claims and later soon severed all contacts by blocking the victims’ mobile numbers.
{{/usCountry}}The victims lodged complaints when they found that he had been robbed of huge funds.
Senior police inspector Rajendra Landge, said, “ The victims were duped online by scamsters based abroad who use online work-from-home jobs as bait to trap the victims. We have lodged a case and a cyber investigation is underway.”