Audit firm manager loses Rs 40 lakh in online ‘task’ fraud

According to police, the manager initially received a message about a part-time job opportunity from an unknown number on July 1. The manager then sent a link of a Youtube channel, with instructions to click on the link and subscribe to the channel.

“Just because he subscribed to their Youtube channel, the frauds contacted the complainant on Telegram and asked for his account details as they wanted to send him Rs 200. It was a reward for subscribing,” said a police officer.
“They did this to gain his trust because when they transferred the money, the complainant started believing that he could earn more money through them,” said the officer.

Later on the same day, the manager was added to a group of freelancer part-time jobs on Telegram. In the group, the complainant was told that he would be assigned tasks that would be completed only if he deposited certain amounts. The fraudsters even promised that the deposits will be refunded, after which they sent him a list of benefits he would receive on doing different deposits.

Police said the frauds then guided him to a website and asked him to open an account on it. The manager was subsequently assigned three tasks and after completing them, he invested Rs 2,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. Sometime later, he received Rs 23,300 in return.

Police said the frauds started giving him more tasks, in which he initially invested Rs 25,000. “The manager was accordingly assigned nine other tasks between July 1 and July 7. He ended up sending Rs 39.76 lakhs to the frauds,” said the police officer.

According to police, the cheating came to light when the complainant realised that the frauds had stopped repaying him the money he had deposited. “He started asking for his money but they alleged that he would have to pay tax. When the complainant said he did not have any money to send them, the frauds alleged that his money could be returned only after his account in their website was closed,” said the officer.

When the frauds kept misguiding him, the complainant realised that he had been duped, following which he approached the cyber unit of the Mumbai Police and lodged a complaint.

After preliminary inquiry, a case was registered against the cyber frauds at the south cyber unit of the Mumbai Police under sections 120A (conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery) of the IPC and under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.