In three different rackets of work from home, Chandigarh police have arrested nine people for allegedly cheating Rs 92.56 lakh from locals.The scams involved attracting victims with work from home, and then further luring them to invest huge sum of money.Chandigarh Police has claimed that at least 181 people from the city were duped of more than Rs 3.97 crore (3,97,34,533) on the work from home job scam in the last seven months.A majority of the victims are housewives, undergraduates and unemployed people.The police said nine suspects were arrested from Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi NCR area.The UT police has also claimed of identifying 21 shell companies through which crores of rupees were transferred in various bank accounts.As many as 24 cell phones, eight bank account kits, 16 stamps of shell companies, and various flex boards of shell companies and bounced cheques have been recovered.The suspects were identified as Sandeep Kumar Sangwan (28), Manish Rawat (33), Rakesh (28), Aditya Sharma (20), Mahesh Sharma (34), Raj Kumar Narang (47), Pratik Maingi (35), Mahesh Kumar (35), and Vishal Verma (34).
“As per record of reported complaints, it came to light that from the last few months, a total 181 complaints of work from home have been received, in which Rs.3,97,34,543 defrauded from the innocent people of Chandigarh,” SP (Cyber Cell) Ketan Bansal said.Prepaid task scams are the ones that involve tricking victims into a fake job opportunity on messaging platforms like Telegram or WhatsApp.These scams often target vulnerable individuals who are in need of money and are looking for either some full-time or part time work, like liking or subscribing YouTube videos/ channels, and liking and sharing on social media applications.Sources said three cheating complaints were received of one Kanwaljeet Singh and two women.Kanwaljeet reported that he has been cheated of almost Rs.
39,53,825 by a Telegram group.He received a Whatsapp message from a number regarding part-time online job of liking YouTube videos.The victim complained that initially the accused paid him some amount for liking videos, and then asked him to join a Telegram group.They guided him to invest money for the task of liking a YouTube channel, social media post and earn more money.
After giving Rs 39,53,82, the complainant said he understood that he has been scammed.The police said the two women were also cheated of Rs 53,02,223 through the same modus operandi.
One of the women reported to police that she received a random Whatsapp message from an unknown caller who identified herself as Sagrika Yadav from Zebra techies Solution India Pvt Ltd.She offered her a part-time position for a work from home opportunity.The work involved liking and subscribing YouTube videos on the links the alleged fraudsters sent.According to the complainant, after liking their videos, they send her Rs 210 twice and Rs 90 once, and thereby merchant task were also available with prepayment.
For merchant task, she paid Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 as initial amount.She was asked to create an account on www.bitfinex.com, which is a multi-trading exchange company’s website.During creation of the account, the victim added, she was told that she made a mistake due to which the group’s members were not able to work and are not getting their money.She initially paid Rs 1,90,000 on humanity grounds, and in total lost Rs 7,62,000 in the scam.
Modus operandi In the beginning, victims received message through Whatsapp/ Telegram regarding some online part-time job.There are often links too in the message by the alleged fraudsters sent.After a click on the link or contacting the number, the victims were asked to join groups on Telegram and Whatsapp, in which five to ten of their associates are already present.The other members assure the victims that the group is genuine by showing their huge income.
The victims are then given the task of liking, subscribing YouTube videos and channels, and other social media posts.They are also paid some nominal amount for their task.When the victim received some amount for their task, they are then asked to create an account on a website – designed by the fraudsters – by sharing the user name and password on a Telegram group.After creation of the account, the victims are then lured to invest huge sum of money.
The victims are also shown through Telegram/Whatsapp their earned money on their website account, but they can’t withdraw that amount.They continuously ask victims to deposit more money.As the investment amount becomes larger, they dump the victim from the the group and junk the website.When the victims contact them to withdraw their money, they ask victims to invest more money in a new group for a new task.CAs, bank employees, advocates involved in the scam During investigation, the UT police said it has come to light that CAs, bank employees, mostly of IDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES Banks, and advocates are also involved in the work from home scam.They set up their offices of fake trading companies and open their accounts in different banks.
The fraudsters search needy and poor people and bank accounts on their names are used to transfer the cheated amount through work from home task scam.They also obtained the mobile numbers on such poor people’s names and register the same mobile numbers in the bank accounts which are opened for cheating purpose.Pak, China-based handlers After opening the accounts, fraudsters provide them account details through Telegram/ Whatsapp to their bosses who are in Dubai, China, Indonesia, Pakistan and they sent them link of v5smsf, Bee, SmsEye2, Poker (These applications are used to take the access of SMS’s of mobile phones) and ask to install these applications in those mobile phones, which are registered in alleged bank accounts, after installation he provide a code to enter in the application to access SMS from the mobile for the purpose of cheating.
The huge amount collected from the work from home scam is then invested in crypto currency (USDT, Bitcoins,) and sent to Dubai, China, Indonesia, Pakistan by various digital wallets.During investigation it was also found that arrested person are involved in money laundering.The accused allegedly opened shell import/ export trading companies for the purpose of cheating and money laundering.The police claimed that involvement of 20 fake trading firms have come to fore..
