Mumbai Crime: Chinese link in latest ‘like and earn’ scam

The new scam lures innocent citizens with offers of lucrative earnings for merely liking YouTube videos or some other small tasks, from the comfort of their home. Representation pic

After the crackdown on loan app scam, the Chinese fraudsters seem to have adopted a new strategy to dupe innocent citizens--promising easy money for merely liking videos on YouTube. A recent case shows traces of Chinese involvement, police said. A 30-year-old working professional has filed a complaint at the Shivaji Nagar police, Govandi, after being duped of Rs 27 lakh.

According to the complaint, the woman received a message on WhatApp from an unknown number, claiming to be a recruiter from one Global Chat Limited. The sender identified herself as Nisha and claimed she works with YouTube merchant and gets a 50 per cent commission for her job. She explained to the complainant different tasks to earn while working from home.

"I was a bit suspicious about the claim and asked a lot of questions, but she sent me several customer feedbacks and screenshots of those who made money working for YouTube," the victim told mid-day. She was convinced after Nisha sent her government certificates.

On the first day, she received Rs 150 for liking three YouTube videos and some more the other day. On the third day, she was informed about another task where she had to enter data on a website related to crypto currency for which she was asked to buy credit of Rs 1,000, and after filling out the data, she received Rs 1,900.

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As per the complainant, the fraudsters connected through different Telegram accounts, and later, she was added to a WhatsApp group with three others, including a customer like her and the other two appeared to be fraudsters.

"I was initially made to buy credits on which I spent a total of Rs 5 lakh, thinking I would get good returns. They told me that I had made some mistake while entering the data so I will lose all my money. But if I paid Rs 10 lakh more, I would receive the full amount with commissions, they said. After spending all my savings, I took out a loan of Rs 10 lakh, assuming that I would get my money back," the victim said.

Later, the fraudsters told her that her commission was over Rs 30 lakh, hence she had to pay R10 lakh as government tax to initiate the payment. She took a loan of another Rs 10 lakh. "But, I have not received any money yet. I have now filed a police complaint and the fraudsters are still in touch, asking for more money," the complainant told mid-day.

"The work-from-home frauds have been around since the beginning of COVID-19 and have been increasing. The fraudsters generally send messages via WhatsApp about making thousands of dollars a day. Our investigations so far have revealed that the websites where the victims are given work are of Chinese origin. Citizens need to ignore such messages," said Ritesh Bhatia, a cyber expert.

Earlier, mid-day has reported about a software engineer falling prey to the same Chinese scam and losing Rs 1.5 lakh. His complaint is registered with Malbar Hill police. Another 38-year-old Andheri resident was cheated in a similar manner recently.