‘Write restaurant reviews on Google, make money’: 4 arrested in latest scam

According to police, on August 13 last year, one Ashish Kumar, a resident of West Sagarpur, filed a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting portal, stating that he was approached by a woman on WhatsApp on August 9.

“She offered him a chance to earn money by rating restaurants on Google; the complainant agreed. On August 11, he was added to a group on Telegram and assigned tasks to rate restaurants on Google,” the officer said.

Initially, Ashish was paid Rs 150 for each task. After that, he was asked to invest Rs 1,000 to get a return of Rs 1,300. “An account was created for him in the name of a platform and he was asked to invest in the business. Thereafter, the complainant was added to another group and asked to invest a huge amount with assured returns,” said the officer.

The complainant, thereafter, got trapped and transferred over Rs 23 lakh expecting good returns. “When he asked for his money, the accused persons told him that he wouldn’t be able to withdraw it without investing more,” said the DCP.

Subsequently, a case of cheating was lodged and the account where the proceeds of the crime were being sent was traced. The four accused were then nabbed from their hideouts.

One of the accused, Om Prakash, revealed he joined several Telegram groups where he came in contact with Vipul and another accused, who is yet to be arrested. “The man on the run ran a big syndicate that provided fraud accounts and had links with Chinese nationals operating abroad,” said Meena.