Cybercriminals have swindled job seekers of over Rs 12.06 crore with promises of part-time positions through online job boards in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Data from the police indicate an upward trend, with reported cases rising from 66 in 2022 to 72 so far this year. The primary victims were found to be private employees (49), closely followed by students (27), and homemakers (17). According to police reports, the scammers use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to lure victims.
According to the police’s report, “significant alarm is warranted due to the rise in the number of government workers falling prey to such schemes. One government employee complained in 2022, but by 2023 there were 12 complaints, which highlights the severity of the fraud.” Rs 9.58 crore has been swindled in 2023 alone. Visakhapatnam police stated that doctors, government employees, and other professionals from metro cities too are falling victim to the scams.
“The scammers start by posting job offers on well-known social media websites in an effort to attract the interest of people looking for part-time work with links that take them to WhatsApp or Telegram accounts,” Visakhapatnam city commissioner of Police Ch Trivikram Varma said at a press conference on Friday, August 25.
The strategy, according to a press release from the police, involves building fake websites that are purposefully designed to draw in and recruit people who react to these posts on social media. Victims are instructed to perform tasks like liking, sharing, and subscribing to YouTube videos in exchange for small rewards.
During the first two days, the tasks would be free. But at the time of withdrawing the promised reward, they would ask for a small payment, which would be returned along with the reward payment. This payment is called ‘recharging’. Later on, victims are told that they have to first purchase the tasks to perform them. However, the amount is withheld at the time of the reward. Victims are again asked to pay, and later swindled. The scammers also encourage victims to buy bitcoin using a fake cryptocurrency app.
They are gradually persuaded to make larger financial commitments with the assurance of higher returns from recharging. Victims are made to believe that they can withdraw the money along with the commission if they follow the recharge instructions and move up a status level. Victims are compelled to keep recharging in an effort to recover their funds because of the repeated cycle of recharges and withdrawals but however the money is frozen.
Speaking to TNM, cybercrime sub-inspector (SI) Bhavani Prasad said that there could be more than 500 victims in the city. “The entire process of deceiving a victim can take one or two days. Once the victim joins Telegram groups and receives tasks, they are made to believe that the other members of the groups are real people who are making profit in a short time. The members of the group emotionally blackmail the victim if they wish to withdraw the amount, saying that there is a threat to her money and therefore the victim continues to do the work and thus contributes more and more money. In one such case, the victim lost around Rs 90 lakh,” the SI said.
SI Bhavani Prasad added that although victims receive instructions on how to pay for tasks with bitcoins at a commission rate, they are misled into believing that the process (bitcoin transaction) did not go smoothly. A smaller amount is shown as the amount to be withdrawn, in order to deceive the public, claiming that the reward amount was reduced after deducting taxes and GST, and other factors like cibil score.
According to the police, the scammers, who are from China, Malaysia, and Singapore, are associated with Indian agencies who help them create bank accounts. “We identified that fraudsters are using current and firm accounts for transactions and converting the amount into cryptocurrency. These 138 complaints were linked to 200 such accounts. We seized at least 1000 accounts in the last one year,” Bhavani Prasad said. "In some cases, scammers posing as hackers negotiate a bribe with false assurances that they will be able to recover the money contributed,” he added.