Mumbai: A 21-year-old helmsman working with the Indian Coast Guard was cheated to the tune of ₹1.47 lakh by fake executives offering him part-time work.
The fake executives assigned the man some tasks and promised to pay him an attractive salary after finishing work. When the victim went to withdraw the money, he was unable to do so and instead, he was asked to pay tax which made him realise that he was being cheated.
Rocky Premchand Saini, 21, who works in the Indian Coast Guard at Worli was admitted to Indian Navy Hospital Asvini due to nutritional anaemia dizziness and weakness.
“As Saini was admitted to hospital for a month while browsing social media, he came across an advertisement of F-KMall for part-time jobs, where they had asked the interested parties to complete some tasks and get money,” said a police officer from Cuffe Parade police station.
Accordingly, they asked Saini to purchase some materials, earn more money by completing some tasks entrusted to him and encash the money deposited in his account after completing the tasks.
“Accordingly, Saini paid ₹200 he completed the task and got ₹400. Later they asked him to pay ₹68,131. The amount reflected in his amount was ₹1,30,003 after completing six tasks when he went to withdraw the money, he was asked to pay 15% as tax to withdraw the amount as the money kept was in some other country where the parent company operated from,” said the officer.
“Later, however, the executives asked Saini to complete one more task, as the last assignment, and also asked him to recharge his company account with an additional amount of ₹59,000. When he completed the last task, he was given two more tasks to which he said no and sought a refund of his money. The accused, however, kept asking him to do the tasks and that was when he realised that he was cheated,” the officer added.
The police officer said the fraudsters use names of various leading e-commerce websites and the tasks mean to purchase material and the person lured is with the commission when the product is sold. They also use the logos of the e-commerce sites to gain the confidence of victims.
“We are trying to trace the accused through the bank transactions in which the complainant’s money was transferred,” said the police officer.