KOCHI: If two cases registered by the Kochi Cyber Police within a week are any indication, investment fraudsters have now switched to Telegram. In these cases, the victims were cheated via that particular social media app promising high returns. Their complaints reveal that, despite all campaigns launched by the police to prevent such cyber frauds, it appears people are still falling prey to the lure of higher returns and commissions.
The latest case was registered on September 7 following a complaint lodged by 21-year-old Muhammed Ershad, a native of Thrissur currently residing at Kacherippady. He lost Rs 1.61 lakh for a part-time job. The money was paid through UPI transactions on various occasions, between July 17 and 19, said a police officer.
“The complainant received messages via Telegram promising high returns for investments in a part-time job. To receive the tasks for the job, an amount has to be paid. The user has to log in through the website www.pouu.in. The fraudsters claim that the service is provided by a company called Rachika Trading. They offer 15% commission, plus money invested, on completion of the task,” the officer said.Even after several rounds of tasks were completed, the complainant neither received the invested amount nor the commission.
“It seems several people have lost money to this type of fraud. Many have come online and posted about losing money. We are looking for UPI IDs to which the complainant sent the money,” the officer said. Another investment fraud was reported on September 3, as a Kochi resident, O B Nair, 80, lost several lakhs of rupees after receiving messages from a Telegram account — @bhupendra188.
“The victim was told about the website www.k111.in, claiming it to be of a Mumbai-based investment company. The fraudsters claimed that, using their service, the person can invest in various trading companies and earn a huge amount,” the officer pointed out. Attracted to the returns, the victim transferred several lakhs of rupees via internet banking and PayTM to the website’s account.
“However, even six months after the investment, no returns were received. The contact person is unavailable now. Our preliminary investigation has shown that the website is bogus. We suspect the website is not hosted in India. We are collecting information about the website,” the officer said.Though the strategy used was different in the two cases, the websites look similar, the police said. “We suspect the same gang is involved in both cases,” the officer added.