Representative image of cyber crime.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: An unidentified person on Telegram lured a 41-year-old techie into a ‘part-time’ job and deceived him into investing Rs 61.58 lakh.
Uday Ullas (name changed), an avid user of the Telegram app for following stock market journalists, received a tempting part-time job offer from someone named Suhasini in November.
All that Ullas had to do was to complete each step of a task by investing money. He earned money at the end of each task, which involved reviewing sites by clicking the URL — https://www.skscanner-job23. com/login.
On day 1, Ullas invested Rs 10,000 and earned an additional Rs 10,000. On day 2, he made Rs 20,000 by investing half of it. The third day saw a substantial increase, with Ullas making Rs 20 lakh.
However, when he wanted to withdraw the Rs 20 lakh that he had earned, that option was barred. Describing the fraudulent scheme to DH, Ullas said the scamster had informed him that the money was stuck in audit and he must pay Rs 10 lakh at the earliest to revive the withdraw option.
"I told them I had no money. So, they gave me a few more days to arrange it,” Ullas said. In a desperate attempt to retrieve his money, Ullas began borrowing from friends to send the money to the fraudsters.
When he borrowed and invested again, another block point arose. “I was told that my credit score had dwindled to 90, following a late payment. Again, I had to send Rs 20 lakh,” Ullas said.
The scam persisted as he was coerced into investing more for a supposed "VIP channel" to facilitate the withdrawal.
Ullas found himself trapped, compelled to pay repeatedly as both his funds and borrowed sums remained inaccessible.
The realisation of being scammed dawned on him only after he had transferred a total of Rs 61.5 lakh.
Realising he had fallen victim to a scam, Ullas lodged a complaint with the South CEN police, who registered a case under the IT Act, and Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police have launched an investigation into the case.
VPN network
A senior police officer with expertise in cyber crime said that cracking such cases took several days of hard work since scamsters use VPN network and chances of leaving loopholes are rare.