Techie loses Rs 42 lakh to ‘WhatsApp scam’: Read the fake messages behind such frauds – Times of India

A software engineer working with an IT company in Gurgaon fell victim to a scam where he was deceived of approximately Rs 42 lakh, according to police. The scammers lured him with promises of substantial earnings by simply liking certain videos. The incident unfolded when he received a message on WhatsApp on March 24. The message claimed that he could earn additional income by engaging in a part-time job involving liking videos on the popular video sharing platform, YouTube.
How the techie was cheated
The engineer was promised quick returns asd asked to invest. “When I agreed to work with them, a woman named Divya added me to a group on Telegram app. She asked me to invest money with the claim of assured better returns. On the pretext of a task, they had asked me to invest and I transferred a total of Rs 42,31,600 from mine and my wife’s bank accounts,” the complainant said.
“Besides Divya, other people named Kamal, Ankit, Bhoomi, Harsh confirmed the transaction and soon after told me that I have earned Rs 69 lakh plus profit. But they did not allow me to withdraw the money. They then asked me to transfer Rs 11,000 more, which seemed fishy to me and I moved to the police,” he added.
However, later when he attempted to withdraw, he was denied access to the sum by the scammers. Post this an FIR was registered against unknown fraudsters under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act at cybercrime.
How these messages read and what they claim
Several team members from TOI Tech-Gadgets Now too have received such messages on WhatsApp. Also, remember that not all these messages come from international numbers. Several of them are Indian numbers too. These messages usually start with a simple, “Hi , How are you?”. This is to gauge if the person will respond to messages from unknown people or not.
“I will give you a little detail about the job we offer you. You don’t have to pay anything and it’s completely free. All you have to do is to like the YouTube videos and send us screenshots. We will pay you 150 rupees once you click LIKE on all the tasks given to you. You can earn up to 8000 rupees per day. You can get your payment immediately after completing your task. Do you want to give it a try?” is the message that follows.
If you say no, they will not give up. “Why? there’s nothing to lose if you try,” is the kind of the next message received. The messages after this come even if you don’t respond. As scammers try different ways to convince the person that the job offer is real.
“By the way, thank you for your response. I am Stacey Johnson HR of INNOV Company.” “I will give you a small detail about the job we offer you. You don’t have to pay anything and it’s completely free. All you have to do is to like the YouTube videos and send us a screenshots. We will pay you 150 rupees once you click LIKE on all the task given to you. You can earn up to 8000 rupees per day. You can get your payment immediately after completing your task. Do you want to give it a try?” read the following messages.
Are WFH scams
As the above messages show, most such scams are WFH scams. These promise WhatsApp users good returns for small simple tasks. The scammers don’t give up easily and try to take the conversation ahead to convince gullible users.