HYDERABAD: When Ramesh (name changed) received a message offering a part-time job to “rate and review”, his interest was piqued and he clicked on the link. The promise of reward points, stored in a virtual account to be claimed later, for every video he rated was something he couldn’t afford to miss. However, his dreams, like a house of cards, came crashing down, upon realising that he was duped and that he couldn’t avail of the rewards he was lured with.
Like Ramesh, many have fallen prey to part-time job fraud. There are some others who got messages promising huge profits if they invested in stocks or IPOs. When they start investing, they’re added to a Telegram group of other participants who actively talk about their investments and benefits. However, everyone in the group, except the victim, are a part of the fraudster gang, the police noted.
These specific types of part-time/investment fraud cases witnessed a sharp rise towards the end of 2022. In fact, 72% of the cybercrime cases registered in Cyberabad commissionerate in 2023 were classified as investment frauds. A year on, people continue to report investment fraud in large numbers. Most of the victims are well-educated individuals, the police observed.
Elaborating on this scam, Cyberabad’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crimes K Shilpavalli said, “It is pertinent to note that victims do not receive the monetary rewards physically, it only shows up on a fake virtual account.” In most cases, conmen keep promising enticing offers and continue to fool the victim for a few days. There have been instances where people have paid lakhs of rupees before they realised that they have been scammed.
Some victims have also reported that when they wanted to withdraw their money from the investment, they were warned that they might have to pay additional charges like income tax, GST and other legal charges to get their profits.
“By the time they realise that it’s a fraudulent scam and report it to the police, there is a significant time lapse. In that time period, criminals would have syphoned off the amount by transferring it to multiple bank accounts or by converting it into cryptocurrency,” the DCP said.
Preventive measures
Avoid clicking on links offering enticing rewards for task-based jobs
Do not trust messages from unknown numbers on WhatsApp or Telegram
Research thoroughly and stay alert before you make online investments
Before you make an online payment, verify the account details