Chennai police arrest 5 in fake part-time job racket
The city police said that they have registered 93 cases in complaints related to similar offences and appealed to the public to be more cautious.
Representative image (File)
CHENNAI: The cyber crime wing of Chennai Police has arrested five persons who lured the public into an online part-time job scam and cheated several lakhs.
The city police said that they have registered 93 cases in complaints related to similar offences and appealed to the public to be more cautious.
The suspects were arrested based on a complaint from a Mogappair resident. He believed a WhatsApp message promising a part-time job related to a YouTube promotion, and started to complete tasks insisted by fraudsters through Telegram.
He was then moved to a bigger telegram group where he continued to perform tasks and made several payments to two bank accounts and lost about Rs 18.2 lakh, after which he filed a police complaint. The cyber crime team obtained the KYC (Know your customer) details of suspect bank account and traced the phone numbers linked to the accounts.
Darla Praveen Kumar (32) of ICF colony was arrested after which associates – A Raju (40), P Ashok Kumar (33), P Praveen Kumar (31) – from Anna Nagar (east) and S Veera Raghavan (33) of Villivakkam were arrested on Friday. Investigations revealed that they were also involved in a similar case in Maharashtra. The police have frozen Rs 10 lakh in their bank accounts.
Police sources said that the victims were lured by WhatsApp and Telegram messages by job offers such as liking, subscribing to YouTube videos, and writing google reviews for fake websites created by the fraudsters.
“Initially, victims would receive money – Rs 150 to Rs 1,000 – for completion of tasks. Then they’re slowly moved to a bigger Telegram group with over 50 participants. There, victims are asked to pay subscription for getting tasks which will pay them more,” an official said.
Fraudsters then post fake screenshots of people earning more money and then give time-bound task and make the victims fail in such tasks. Using this, fraudsters demand penalty payment by freezing the amount earned.
Believing the con, victims invest more money by borrowing loans from bank, friends, pledging jewellery and get cheated. The city police produced the suspects before a magistrate and remanded them to judicial custody.