E-Paper
Pune man falls for online scam, loses ₹16.87 lakh
They offered the victim an opportunity of earning extra money by doing a few online tasks for them. The victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported the event to authorities, explaining how he was deceived by the online scam
Pune:
A 40-year-old man from Pune was tricked by cyber fraudsters and lost a large sum of ₹16.87 lakh. According to police, it started when the victim received a random message on a popular social media platform. The message was from someone pretending to be a representative of a well-known company.
They offered the victim an opportunity of earning extra money by doing a few online tasks for them. The victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported the event to authorities, explaining how he was deceived by the online scam.
A case regarding the same has been registered with the Cyber police on Friday.
Initially, excited about the idea of earning extra income, the victim agreed to the offer he received online. Over a few weeks, he completed tasks and received regular payments. However, he didn’t know that this was all part of the scam. As per the report, the incident happened between May 8 this year till last week.
As the victim became more involved, the fraudsters convinced him to invest more money in various online ventures, promising high returns. Believing them, the victim transferred a sum of ₹16.87 lakh in eight different transactions to various bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.
When the victim realised he had been tricked, he reported the incident to the police. He provided them with details of his online interactions and bank transactions to help with their investigation.
The police are now investigating the case with the help of cybercrime experts. They are working to find and arrest the fraudsters responsible for this scam.
Meenal Patil, senior police inspector at Cyber Police Station said, “Accused lured the victim to earn extra money and asked him to complete a task against which he will earn money. Initially, the victim received regular payouts but soon he came to know that he has been duped and reached the Cyber Police Station.’’
Patil further told that such task frauds are common, hence people should be careful when unknown people ask to participate in any such task-related work to earn extra money.
