Beware of Work-from-Home Scams: Two Cyber Frauds Reported in Gurugram.
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The Work-from-home ideal of jobs have become vastly popular in post-covid India, this has
created opportunities for fraudsters and scammers to play on people’s naivety by offering
them job opportunities that pay well for tasks that are simple and easy, then the victims are
reeled in by the scammers using tactics of ‘Credit points’ and even threats. Two such cases
have been registered in Gurugram, Haryana.
Two people have allegedly been duped by cyber criminals who promised them lucrative
work-from-home opportunities. A resident of Malibu Towne in Sector 47 was allegedly
duped out of Rs 7.9 lakh, while a woman from Sector 66 told cops she was duped out of Rs 2
lakh by cyber crooks.
In the first case, the complainant told police that on April 11, he received a WhatsApp
message from someone offering him a part-time job paying Rs 2,000 per day. He was told to
like and subscribe to Instagram channels and to join a Telegram account titled @tidid. He
was later asked to make payments of Rs 1,900 and 3,000, as well as to purchase credit points
worth Rs 30,000 and then another Rs 80,000. According to the complaint, he lost around Rs
7.92 lakh in total through multiple such transactions.
He began receiving calls from various numbers on May 1 threatening him to add more money
to their account. On May 1, we received the complaint, a police officer said. At the
Cybercrime police station, a FIR was filed under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and
420 (cheating) of the IPC, as well as relevant sections of the IT Act.
In the other case, the fraudsters defrauded the woman of nearly Rs 2 lakh. On April 28, the
resident of Sector 66 told police that she received a call on her WhatsApp number for work-
from-home opportunities.
She was also approached about liking and subscribing to YouTube videos. I was told there
would be no additional fees, she told cops, adding that she was then redirected to Telegram
groups and asked to apply for the job. She was also asked to purchase credit points in order to
withdraw her earnings.
On May 1, a FIR was filed at Cybercrime (South) police station under Section 420 of the
IPC and relevant sections of IT. The matter is being investigated, and terms have been
formed to apprehend the perpetrators, a senior police officer said.
These scammers are only able to execute these scams because people are not too well
knowledgeable in such fields and also because people are drawn to the idea of earning a
handsome amount of money without much efforts. We must be cautious as things aren’t
always how they appear to be.
-Mayank Singh
