Woman loses Rs 12 lakh to online scam

BENGALURU: A woman, works as an accountant in a private company, lost Rs 12 lakh which she had saved up over 12 years to an online scam. She had received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number promoting business and she lost her hard-earned money after replying to it.

The victim Ashwini, is a resident of R T Nagar and her husband is a delivery executive with food delivery platform Swiggy. Ashwini had uploaded her resume on a web portal looking for a new job. After after a few days, Ashwini received a message that she is selected for a job and she started responding to the messages.

She was then asked to switch to Telegram and the unknown caller gained her confidence saying that if she makes a one-time investment, she will get double the amount in return. Now, a case has been filed at the Yeshwanthpur CEN station.

She got a call one day saying that the prospective employer had see her resume and asked if she would like to join a new job. Ashwini immediately agreed to the offer. Following the instructions of the caller, Ashwini subscribed to a YouTube channel and sent a screenshot. She then got Rs 150 as the first payment. The tricksters then assisted her to join a Telegram group and sent her a link. She continued to subscribe to other channels and got Rs 150 in return on every occasion. After that, the caller suggested to pay Rs 2,000 to go to next level task. After she paid Rs 2,000, she got back Rs 2,800 on her first investment”.

Ashwini, an accountant lost her savings for online scam.

“After the first time, they offered me to invest Rs 5,000 and I get back Rs 6,000 as return. On the third occasion, they told me to invest Rs 9,000 for which I was promised Rs 10,800 with commission. Totally, I invested Rs 12,34,000, but did not get any returns. Now they are asking me to get a VIP membership after paying Rs 4 lakh and told me that only then I will get Rs 15,37,000. I don’t know how they got my number. I blindly trusted the caller. They asked me to transfer the amount to different bank accounts phase by phase and I did as they instructed me over messages. They were in touch only through Telegram”, she said.