Siddharth Asthana, a Noida resident, was out of work when last year he joined a Telegram group offering jobs that he could do at home for monetary returns. The catch: He had to make an initial investment of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.
“I considered taking a chance due to the relatively modest initial investment. Before I knew, my investments had risen to Rs 50,000, yielding a profit exceeding Rs 40,000. By evening, I had invested over Rs 20 lakh, after which the Telegram group’s bosses (administrators or admins), codenamed Teacher and Stacy, stopped responding to my messages,” said Asthana,