Pune: Army veteran loses over Rs 1 crore in ‘money for likes’ cyber scam, probe on

Senior Inspector Minal Patil, in-charge of the Pune Cyber Crime police station said, “The ‘money for likes’ scam is a comparatively new cyber scam. The victim is initially offered money for hitting like button on videos. Later, on small payments, higher returns are given to gain trust. Eventually, larger sums of money is sought. Then, some fake issue with the returns is raised and more money is sought to get back the already paid money.”

Patil added, “In this case, the complainant initially fell prey to the lure and later was forced to make payments to get back his earlier payments. Our team is looking into various leads available. We want to appeal to the citizens not to fall prey to such ‘money for likes’ baits. Citizens who have been duped in this manner, should approach us as soon as possible.”

According to the police, the complainant was initially approached by a woman through a text message sharing details of a part time employment opportunity. The woman claimed that she was from Thailand and offered Rs 50 on every ‘like’ on a Youtube video link sent by her. She asked the man to send her the screenshots of his likes along with his name, address and bank details. The complainant even received an initial ‘welcome bonus’ of Rs 150. He was subsequently added to a phone messenger group titled ’employee trial group’.

After being added to the group, one or more suspects asked the victim to pay Rs 1,000 online for ‘prepaid tasks’ and offered to pay back Rs 1,480 upon completion of the tasks. Subsequently, to gain his trust, the accused sought Rs 3,000 from the man and returned over Rs 4,000.

The fraudsters then told the complainant that he was being added to a ‘VIP Group’ where better opportunities were available. The veteran was subsequently duped into making online payments of a whopping Rs 1.1 crore in 26 transactions to 13 different bank accounts before realising that he had been cheated.