KOCHI: The Ernakulam Rural police on Monday issued an alert against online part-time job fraud, through which numerous persons lost their money. Ernakulam Rural police chief Vivek Kumar said several complaints of online part-time employment fraud are regularly being reported from different parts of the district. According to the police, fraudsters adopt two methods to siphon off money of people, offering a part-time job with attractive offers to earn up to Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 per day.
The first method is to offer a job of online file arrangement and the second is by selling products online. “The victims are trapped by sending web links via social media platforms or text messages. When the person clicks the link, a WhatsApp chat gets opened. Later, they will demand photographs, copies of PAN cards and Aadhaar cards from the job seekers.
As part of the job, the employees would be asked to rearrange the content in the files sent by the fraudsters with special fonts and layouts,” states the press release. Once the task is completed, the fraudsters accuse the employee of making a grave mistake which cost the company several lakhs of rupees. Later, they start sending threatening e-mails, including a legal notice demanding compensation. Fearing legal action, most victims pay the money the fraudsters demand.
In the second method, the victims are offered a job of selling the products of the company online. The platform to sell these products is also created by the swindlers.
“First they ask a small amount as an investment to procure products and sell them on their platform. For taking the victims into confidence, the fraudsters tell them that the tasks were performed successfully and a huge amount has been credited to their bank accounts. However, when the victims fail to encash the amount, the swindlers ask for more investment. When the victims lose huge amounts, the company disappears from online platforms,” the statement read.