 "Cyber crime, Cyber law")
A Gurugram woman was allegedly duped of more than Rs 76 lakh by unidentified people on the pretext of earning easy money by rating movies on a fake web portal.
On Wednesday, a similar incident was reported from Noida, where a city resident was duped of Rs 12 lakh in the same way through a link on the messaging app Telegram.
In the latest fraud, a woman named Divya, who works as an executive in an MNC in Gurugram, filed a complaint in this regard, and on the basis of that complaint, police have registered an FIR.
In her complaint, Divya stated that on February 25, she was approached on Telegram by a woman named Meera with an offer for a part-time job.
Two days later, another woman named Tejaswi started sending messages to her on WhatsApp. Tejaswi told the victim that this part-time job entailed rating films on the Bitmaxfilm.com app and advised her to register and begin rating to earn extra money.
"The caller told me that I had to complete one set at least every day. Each set had 28 movies to be rated. To start rating, the account has to be recharged with Rs 10,500, and I was told I could withdraw my money after the set is complete," wrote the victim in her complaint.
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The victim further said that the scammer also shared an account number to make deposits and start the work. Falling for the opportunity, the victim created an account on Bitmaxfilm.com and made multiple cash deposits.
"While rating the tickets, I received a message on the platform that I have received a premium ticket and that for this premium ticket I will have to deposit the negative balance, and if I don't pay a negative balance, I can't complete the set and the account will freeze," the woman said in her complaint.
"I deposited Rs 29,500 first, then again Rs 82,541. They told me I had to complete 30 tickets because the level had increased. It again showed a negative balance of 5,48,658. I was asked again to deposit Rs 9,59,357 to complete the final ticket. But later, I was told I had reached level 8 and I had to complete 35 tickets," she wrote.
The victim further revealed that she first deposited Rs 29,500 and then Rs 82,541.
Later, she was told that she had to complete 30 tickets because the level had increased. By this time, her balance on the website showed a negative of Rs 5,48,658 and due to this, she was asked to deposit Rs 9,59,357 to complete the final ticket.
She was then informed that she had reached level 8 and had to complete 35 tickets.
According to the police, the victim was instructed to deposit Rs 21,23,765 with the promise that she could withdraw all her deposits once she completed the transaction. However, after depositing a total of Rs 76,84,493 into the app's account, she was unable to withdraw her money. And that's how she discovered that she had been scammed.
The victim then filed a complaint and an FIR was registered against unidentified frauds under Sections 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66-D of IT Act. Further investigation into the case is underway.
(With agency input)
