Image for representational purposes.
Credit: iStock Photo
Bengaluru: A private firm employee lost a whopping Rs 67.63 lakh after his attempts at moonlighting went wrong as he fell for an online part-time job fraud. The scamsters impersonated Amazon India executives to lure the victim.
Sathish K (name changed), from western Bengaluru, fell for the scam over seven months.
The 47-year-old first came across the so-called opportunity while using Telegram on January 11, 2025. After clicking on a link, he was added to a group titled “Amazon India Part-Time benefit job”.
Once he joined the group, he began receiving messages from the administrators about opportunities to make a quick buck by completing simple tasks like reviewing products and videos. However, all those were called “paid tasks” - meaning you had to pay a certain sum to unlock them and gain commission in return.
Sathish first paid Rs 1,000 and received Rs 1,650 in return - a 65 per cent return on his investment, he was told. After a few such small payments, he was fully hooked in. Slowly, the perpetrators told him about opportunities to earn more by investing a higher sum and receiving higher returns, the FIR noted.
Between January and August, Sathish transferred Rs 67,63,950 to two SBI accounts and an HDFC account shared by the scamsters. His trouble began when he couldn’t withdraw any money.
“Whenever I tried to withdraw the money, I was asked to pay more,” as per the FIR.
He then approached the West Cybercrime Police, who registered the FIR last week.
Police are now gathering bank account details to trace the money.
Sources told DH that since the money was transferred over several months, it will be tricky to recover it.
Red flags to watch out for:
Part time jobs offered in Telegram & WhatsApp groups
Offering extremely high rates of return or commission
Offering money for trivial tasks like liking and reviewing
Demand to pay money to withdraw the investments
Simple hiring process with no interviews or tests