Mumbai Crime: Housewife falls for ‘like-and-earn’ scam, duped of Rs 10 lakh

Yet another victim of the Chinese-linked 'like-and-earn' scam has approached the Mumbai Police after she was duped to the tune of Rs 10 lakh. Like many others, she was asked to like YouTube videos and earn Rs 50 for every like, and later she was asked to invest Rs 1,000 in order to get further tasks to earn more money. The complainant, a 49-year-old housewife, has claimed that initially, she earned a few thousand rupees.

Such scams are being reported widely across the country, and multiple cases have been registered in Mumbai. The cyber cell has been examining the modus operandi of the fraudsters and they have also found that websites, Instagram, Telegram and WhatsApp accounts used in this fraud have links in China.

"Just like how the loan app scam was being operated through a human chain, which involved a few sets of people and setting up huge call centres in Nepal to dupe Indian nationals. As of now, we didn't see any call centres in Nepal. It appears that the fraud is happening on Indian soil, and the website used to dupe people is suspected to have a base in China," an officer from the cyber cell told mid-day.

In previous cases, the victims received a message offering them a chance to make money from home by simply completing several tasks, which included liking YouTube videos, buying credit, and then filling out some data related to cryptocurrency. The victims would receive Rs 50 per YouTube like, purchase credit for a total of Rs 1,000, complete further tasks, and get Rs 1,900. For their second task, they bought credit for $3,000 and got $4,265 in their UPI wallets.

In the recent case, the victim was scrolling through her Facebook feed and saw work-from-home advertisements. As per her complaint, which was registered in the Gamdevi police station, after she showed interest, she got a message via WhatsApp asking her to like YouTube videos. "I liked the videos, and as per the direction, I took a screenshot and shared it with the WhatsApp contact. Rs 150 got credited to my account for liking three videos," the complainant said in her statement.

After gaining the complainant's confidence, she was added to a Telegram group through a link. "I was then asked to invest some money, which would be converted into Bitcoin, and I was to get good returns," the statement read.

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The woman then invested Rs 1,000 with the help of an Instagram handler associated with the fraudsters, and she received Rs 1,900 in her account after this. She then invested Rs 3,000 and was credited Rs 4,265. "It is similar to the loan app scam, where complainants first used the app to get money and later were tortured and duped of lakhs," an officer said.

The woman alleged that, after earning a few thousand rupees, she was added to another Telegram group by the handlers, and she was told that now, after completing three tasks, she would get paid. The complainant then invested around Rs 8,95,00 by making separate payments; she also took help from her brother, who transferred R20,000 to the fraudster's account, and her husband, who also transferred Rs 1 lakh.

The complainant also claimed that the fraudsters also created an account for her on their website, where it showed that after investing Rs 10,88,232, her account had a total balance of Rs 20 lakh, but to claim the same amount, she needed to invest an additional Rs 8 lakh.

"I said that I didn't have money and they should return the earnings, as reflected on their site, but I was told that until and unless I invested more, she wouldn't get any amount, as per their policy. I realised that something was suspicious," reads her statement. The complainant then approached the police and registered a case on Friday. The scam occurred between January 31 and February 6, according to the FIR.

Earlier, mid-day reported about how a 30-year-old woman from Govandi and a software engineer from Andheri lost Rs 27 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh respectively in similar scams.

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Day in January when the victim got lured