Mumbai Crime: ‘Don’t go after easy money, you will lose what little you have’

After infiltrating a group of cyber criminals and exposing the inner workings of the dastardly likeandearn scam midday has interviewed hapless victims who have been defrauded of lakhs of rupees While sharing their ordeal they urged the public not to fall for offers that are too good to be true According to victims the cyber police are investigating the case but due to the crooksrsquo international links recovering their money will be an uphill tasklsquoDonrsquot get duped like I didrsquoA 28yearold working professional who didnrsquot wish to reveal her identity said ldquoI am now certain that I am not going to get my hardearned money back but I want to tell middayrsquos readers that the fraudsters were so convincing that I ended parting with R25 lakh All my savings are gone I had taken a loan of R20 lakh assuming that I would get back the R5 lakh I had invested The deeper you go the more money you end up losingrdquoShe added that the cyber cell has been investigating her case for the past two months and have found that money was transferred to multiple accounts and the UPI ID which was given to her to transfer money is not functional The crooks have been using multiple numbers but one UPI works only for 30 minutes They transfer the money to various accounts and it is suspected the money is converted into cryptocurrency before it goes out of the countryrdquo she addedA doctor recently filed a complaint at Malabar Hill police station after falling prey to scamsters Representation picldquoWhile being scammed I received only Rs 8000 and I am still paying EMIs for the loan I took to invest in this ponzi scheme I cannot even begin to explain the trauma I have been through and I just hope that one day I will get my money backrdquo she added She added that the Telegram group to which she was added is still functional and she is still receiving messages asking her to invest more money ldquoThey are showing a balance of Rs 45 lakh in my account which they created on their website They are asking me to invest more money to get back everything I had invested earlierrdquoAlso read Like ponzi schemes victims refer more victims to fraudstersRegret picking up call victimAnother victim who works for a multinational company recently lodged a complaint with the MIDC police after losing Rs 10 lakh to the same scam He urged the public to not entertain calls or messages from unknown numbers particularly international ones The fraudsters use internet or appgenerated numbers and once they get a response they share attractive workfromhome offers where one has to like some posts to earn money ldquoThey build trust before duping victims of lakhs of rupees I would have been okay had I not responded to their callsrdquo he told middayHe also shared that he has been following up with the police and that some UPI accounts to which he had transferred Rs 35 lakh have been blocked He remains hopeful that he will recover his money and said that such frauds could be prevented if victims refuse to respond to easymoney offers According to victims despite the fact that complaints have been registered against them fraudsters suspected to be operating from abroad have no fear of law enforcement agenciesldquoThey have been approaching me even now and asking me to invest Rs 10 lakh to get Rs 30 lakh in one go In fact they show a balance of Rs 30 lakh in my account that they had opened on their websiterdquo a victim stated A doctor recently filed a complaint at the Malabar Hill police station after falling prey to a similar fraud ldquoI was approached via an international number and asked if I was interested in a workfromhome opportunity As soon as I showed interest I was asked to like some images and was rewarded with Rs 180 which motivated me to engage further But in the end I only received a few thousand rupees and lost Rs 15 lakhrdquo the doctor explainedHe also urged people to avoid messages and calls where individuals are asked to like pictures and write reviews in return for money In February an individual attached to an international bank lost Rs 10 lakh to scammers He filed a complaint with the Mumbai cyber cell In March a person involved with digital marketing lost Rs 430 lakh after he agreed to take up a parttime job The victim stated that he had received a call from an international WhatsApp number where a person identified herself as Sara Ali an HR person for lsquoBuilder Globe Pvt Ltdrsquo ldquoShe told me that they were looking for someone to do digital media marketing parttimerdquo the victim said in his statementLike the others he was tasked with liking an image and got Rs 250 Then he was added to a Telegram group and kept making payments ldquoI kept paying as I initially received a few thousand rupees but later they kept delaying depositing my earnings claiming that the server was not working They kept asking me to make more payments But I didnrsquot get any moneyrdquo he saidCops flummoxedAn officer attached to the Mumbai cyber cell said ldquoIt takes a lot of effort to track down cyber criminals because we often do not know their location And by the time we collect confidential information they erase their footprints Despite these challenges some cases have been successfully detected and our teams are actively working to combat scamsrdquoRs 2500000Amount the 28yearold victim was duped ofRs 150000Amount doctor was duped of