According to the police, the accused initially contacted the 35-year-old complainant on his WhatsApp number on September 14.
The deputy manager of a logistics company recently lodged a complaint with the Cyber Police station in Mumbai alleging that an ‘online task fraud gang’ duped him of over Rs 37 lakh.
According to the police, the accused initially contacted the 35-year-old complainant on his WhatsApp number on September 14. The purported message reads, “Happy new day to you, how are you doing? I am Bindu from Dentsu India.”
After the complainant responded to the message, the woman claimed that she ran a digital marketing agency and offered him a part-time job in the company.
“The imposter said that her firm writes reviews on restaurants and hotels on YouTube and Google Maps Merchants and if I want a part-time job, I will have to contact their company’s reception (username@taskreceptionistAmbika) on Telegram,” said the complainant in his statement to the police.
The deputy manager subsequently installed an application and messaged the company, following which he was asked to ‘like’ a few pages on social media.
“As soon as he completed the task, the criminals sent Rs 150 to him and in the next one week, he was assigned 17 other tasks, and a total of Rs 59,750 was deposited in his account,” said a police officer investigating the case.
After winning his confidence, the cyber criminals assigned the deputy manager 21 other tasks and he was also instructed to invest in Bitcoin as part of some tasks.
He was told that he would get a 60 per cent commission on the profits generated through investment in Bitcoin. The complainant then opened an account on a website as directed by the cyber criminals.
“On their instructions, the complainant transferred Rs 8.33 lakh from his one account in 10 different transactions while he was duped into investing another Rs 29.38 lakh from his salary account,” said an officer.
The fraud came to light recently after the complainant wished to have his money back. The accused allegedly told him that he would have to pay a 30 per cent tax.
“I told them that I did not have any money to pay them after which they informed me that my account was locked and I would have to pay them money to unlock the account on the website. And despite repeated requests, when the money was not refunded, I realised that I had been duped,” the complainant’s statement reads.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of cheating, impersonation, forgery, and conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the IT
Source : The Indian Express
