Part-time job fraud: Techie loses Rs 23 lakh

Bengaluru: A 28-year-old software engineer reports losing over Rs 23.23 lakh after unwittingly investing in a part-time job scheme.

The victim, Kritika P (name changed), worked at a private firm in Whitefield. 

Kritika told the police that, on November 3, she was contacted on WhatsApp by a person named Sheetal from an unknown number. An online search of the country code revealed that the phone number was most likely from the US. 

Sheetal allegedly told Kritika that there was a part-time job opportunity and that she would get paid to review a restaurant named Chutniy. 

Kritika then posted the review, sent a screenshot of it and was paid Rs 200, she told the police. This was the first hook. The young techie was then lured into joining five telegram groups – @Meenakshipatil96, @kashyapteacher, @CSR0127, @Tax011, @GoldMentor012 – which she did. 

The victim subsequently invested Rs 1,000 to complete online tasks on swiccatch.com and earned a return of Rs 1,300.

“The person then told me that I could earn more by investing more,” Kritika stated in her police complaint. 

Convinced by the subterfuge, Kritika, through multiple instalments, told the police that she transferred Rs 23,23,315 to five ICICI bank accounts, one Federal Bank account and a few UPI IDs.

When the time came to withdraw the money, the scammer demanded more investments, Kritika alleged. Realising she was scammed, Kritika approached the Whitefield Cyber Economic and Narcotics Crime (CEN) police on November 9.  

The entire scam occurred between November 3 and 8, she said. 

The CEN police filed the case under Section 66(D) of the Information Technology (IT) Act and IPC sections 419 and 420. Investigations are underway. 

A cybercrime investigator said that online job frauds were the most common and many fall for it, hoping for a passive income. 

Over 3,000 cases this year

Data released by the Bengaluru police revealed that till September this year, 3,346 cases of online job fraud were registered across the city. Victims lost over Rs 204 crore to this scam alone.

While the police managed to freeze Rs 73.71 crore, they returned Rs 7.67 crore to the complainants, the data showed.