4 arrested over part-time job scam; 8 phones, Rs 12.7 Lakh seized from them

While initially the victims are given anywhere between Rs 50 – Rs 400 for a certain number of likes, eventually they are asked to invest money which will be doubled. Once they receive a large amount, the fraudsters stop communicating with them.

The complainant in the case was contacted on WhatsApp by an unknown person who claimed to be working with a media company in August. The person told the victim that he needs to go on Google maps and give high ratings to the hotels whose social media the person claimed to handle. He said that the victim would be paid for the same. He agreed to the same and for three days he was paid small amounts.

Later he was added to a Telegram group where he was told to invest money. He was promised Rs 26 lakh for nearly Rs 10 lakh. The victim ended up paying Rs 9.68 lakh over a period of time. When the victim started asking for the Rs 26 lakh, he was removed from the Teleg-ram group and also blocked on WhatsApp. He then approached police that began a probe.

A team led by senior inspector Ghansyam Nair began probe in the case. Based on technical probe, the police traced four persons in connection with the case. While three of the accused are from Maharashtra — two aged 22 from Ahmednagar and one 34-year-old from Pune — the fourth person Kuldeep Kumar (31) is from Haryana, who also has a case registered against him.
The police have found that two groups worked together to operate the scam.

The main group is based in Noida which then got in touch with the accused through Instagram and WhatsApp. The second group is based in West Bengal.

“Every persons is given a separate task and are not known to each other. Based on the number of persons they managed to dupe, they are paid a percent of the amount. We are going through the data on their phones to find out details of other victims. More arrests are likely in the case,” an officer said. While the police seized Rs 3.5 lakh and eight mobile phones from the accused, Rs 9.27 lakh was found in their bank accounts was frozen.