27-year-old Builder Defrauded Of Rs 1 Lakh By Two Cyber Crooks On Telegram

A 27-year-old builder Vivek Gharat from Panvel has been duped of Rs 1 Lakh by two cyber crooks. They offered the builder huge returns in an online investment scheme. According to The Times of India report, the builder was searching for investment schemes on the messaging app, Telegram. Rekha and Vishal Sharma provided him with a fake website where he was made to fill out his personal details. They opened an account for him via Telegram as well.

After this, he was made to invest Rs 1,000 and his Telegram account showed a balance of Rs 1,620 within 15 minutes. The fraudsters gained Vivek’s trust and made him invest a total of Rs 1 Lakh in 3 instalments. The account showed a balance of Rs 2.20 Lakh but Vivek was unable to transfer the money from Telegram to the bank account. The builder realised that he had been defrauded and lodged a complaint with the police station.

A similar incident was reported some time ago when a 71-year-old accountant Rameshkumar Shah was allegedly defrauded of Rs 5 Lakh by a cyber-fraudster who posed as the former first lady of Afghanistan Rula Ghani. According to PTI, the fraudster had sought Shah’s help in investing USD 22 Million in India. As stated by an official to the news agency, Shah was promised that the amount will be deposited in his account. The sender had also said that Shah would get 25 per cent of $22 Million. She had asked him to invest the rest of the amount in a business from which they will profit. The sender had forwarded a copy of a passport, two photographs, and the receipt of $22 Million to win the victim’s trust. After that Shah was asked to open an account in Indonesian Bank as well and deposit 360$. When the sender stopped responding to his calls, Shah realised that he had been cheated.

In another case of an online scam, a man lost Rs 8.59 Lakh. According to a report by The Indian Express, he was approached by a woman earlier this month with a job offer. In this job, he was required to like YouTube videos in exchange for money.