Hyderabad techie loses Rs. 86,600 in online scam to post reviews
Hyderabad: A 24-year-old college software employee in Hyderabad was defrauded of ₹ 86,000 by cyber fraudsters in an elaborate online fraud scheme. In her complaint to the Cyber Crime department, the victim claimed that she lost ₹ 86,000 to fraudsters who sent her a message on WhatsApp and Telegram offering a part-time job for posting reviews.
The victim said she was added to a WhatsApp group on December 9, 2024 and the fraudsters shared a Google Maps link and asked her to post a review and 5-star to the business listing. Upon completing the task, she was asked to share a screenshot with a Telegram contact for payment. She initially received a payment for completing tasks which involved liking and reviewing maps listings.
Subsequently, she was assigned prepaid tasks requiring payments of ₹1,000, ₹3,000, and ₹7,000. The tasks were offered as investments, with claims of higher returns upon task completion. She added that she paid the required amounts to various UPI IDs and successfully withdrew funds for the first task.
Later, she moved to the second task and after the completion of the task, was informed that her investment had increased to ₹4,300. She then purchased the third task by paying ₹7,000 and her total investment was reported to have grown to ₹14,300.
During the withdrawal process, she was informed that a “channel” needed to be purchased and to withdraw the amount. Now, she was informed that a mistake has caused the withdrawal process to fail.
The victim was then pressured to repair the account through two solutions and siphoned off money in two transactions of ₹29,600 and ₹50,000. Despite completing these transactions, she was told that another group member had delayed their payment, causing another failure. Subsequently, she was asked to complete an additional withdrawal order by paying ₹1,50,168. It is then, the victim realised that she had been defrauded and filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime department in Cyberabad. The police have registered an FIR (Cr. No. 9321/2024) under the Section of 318(4) BNS.
