Software engineer from Pune falls for part-time work from home scam, loses around Rs 16 lakh

By Divyanshi Sharma: Over the last couple of months, there has been a rise in incidents where people have fallen prey to cyber scammers who manipulate them into depositing funds into various accounts. These fraudsters often entice their victims by offering them seemingly attractive “part-time job opportunities” that involve earning money through liking videos. Initially, to gain the victim’s trust, the scammers make small deposits into the victim’s account. However, once the victim starts developing a sense of reliance on the fraudster, the scam takes a turn and starts involving tasks that require handling larger sums of money.

Until now, a lot of people have been victims of this scheme and have lost their hard-earned money as a result. The most recent case of this scam occurred in Pune, affecting a software engineer who tried making some extra money when he got a lucrative ‘work from home’ part-time job offer.

Pune techie loses around Rs 16 lakh

According to a report in TOI, a Pune-based software engineer was duped of Rs 15.9 lakh by scammers who offered him a part-time work-from-home job. The scam was reportedly carried out between May 4 and May 8. A case has been registered and investigation is going on.

A police official told TOI that the victim works at a reputed software company and on May 4, received a message on an app that promised to pay him money for a part-time job. The task involved liking some videos and the victim was compensated fairly for the same initially. The man was then told to invest in other prepaid tasks to ‘earn more money’.

Initially, the victim made small investments, but after receiving commissions, he moved on to bigger investments. When the victim told his ’employers’ that he wants to withdraw his money, the fraudsters told him that in order to get his money back, he would have to pay up more.

In four days, the victim ended up transferring Rs 15.9 lakh to various bank accounts as well as UPI accounts. When the scammers continued demanding money, the man realised that he was being duped and approached the police.

Mumbai-based man falls for liking videos scam

A lot of such cases have surfaced in the past where victims are asked to ‘like videos to earn money’. Just last month, a Mumbai-based man lost Rs 8.5 lakh in a similar incident.

According to a report by Indian Express, fraudsters approached the victim with a job offer in which all he had to do was like YouTube videos.

At first, the tasks involved small sums of money and the victim received these small amounts multiple times in his bank account. Because of regular payment, the victim started trusting the scammer. Eventually, he was added to some groups on Telegram and was told that his money would be deposited in his ‘virtual account’. This ‘virtual account’ was a sham set up by the scammers to trick the man into believing that he was actually getting paid via the account.

The victim then began getting high-paying tasks and was added to certain ‘VIP task groups’, the police told Indian Express. However, when he said that he wanted to leave the group, he wasn’t allowed to do so and was given a new task that involved a much larger amount.