Cyber-fraudsters offer Mumbai woman online sales job, dupe her of Rs 3.54 lakh

A 43-year-old unemployed woman in Mumbai fell prey to a cyber-fraud where fraudsters contacted her through a text message offering her a job to invest in products online and get a commission along with the money invested.

An FIR was registered by the Borivali police on August 8. The woman told the police she was a store manager and is presently unemployed. On August 8, she received a text message which read, “IF You Want 5,888/- Per Day as part time Job So Kindly Contact on This No 7********2” .

The complainant called on the number and the cyber-fraudster impersonating an executive of a private company asked for her details and work experience. The person told her he works for an online shopping platform and she will have to do an “Online Commodity Sale”. The woman was made to ‘register’ by filling up a form and was added to a group on Telegram, a messaging service.

The complainant was given ‘training’ by one Reetedh Sharma on Telegram on ‘how to make and withdraw money’ and how to increase sales of commodities. She was asked to buy a waist belt for Rs 160 which she did using her ICICI bank account. Within minutes, Rs 240 were credited to her account.

The woman was lured by the quick money-making business and ended up buying 14 products like face cream, t-shirts, shoes, phone, bracelet, etc and spent Rs 3.03 lakh but she did not get any commission on them. She contacted Sharma who told her that the money was getting saved in her company’s account and asked her to keep investing.