A woman looking for a part-time job was allegedly cheated of Rs 30 lakh after she was offered money for liking and sharing photographs and videos online, an officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said.
Ritika Mohta received a message on a Telegram group last month where she was promised a lucrative income if she liked photographs and videos online and shared them from her social media accounts.
Mohta then received a series of texts where she was “assigned to like and share videos as well as share reviews of videos online”, the officer added.
Initially, she was paid small amounts on her mobile wallet, the officer said. "This was done to gain her trust," the officer said.
A few days later Mohta was sent multiple messages asking her to send money to various e-wallets so she could be a part of a "select group" that would get not only paid handsomely but also get "a part of the company's profits", an investigating officer said.
She was also added to another Telegram group where she received several messages asking her to "send money to the wallets at the earliest so she could be eligible for higher returns", the officer said.
She sent a total of Rs 30 lakh to different e-wallets. However, she neither received the returns nor the principal that she had invested. She stopped getting any response after the payments. There was no response every time she tried to contact the numbers from which she had received the messages," said the officer.
Mohta then filed a complaint with the cyber crime police station in Salt Lake.
"We have recovered Rs 5 lakh and returned it to Mohta. We are trying to track down the fraudsters," said Badana Varun Chandra Sekhar, the joint commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar Commissionerate.