YouTube opportunity scams continue to happen. Many have lost thousands to lakhs.
Karthika, a woman living in Greater Noida’s quiet Panchsheel Hainish Society, received an attention-grabbing WhatsApp message. It stated that he would be given the opportunity to work from home. The message said that if you watch YouTube videos and then like and subscribe to the channel, you will get paid. As it is an easy task, Kartika, attracted by it, falls into the trap of lurking fraudsters.
Using the Telegram messenger, the fraudsters sent Kartika Rs. 50 to Rs. They promised rewards of up to 5,000. First, the fraudsters credited his account with Rs 150 as a reward for his early efforts. This gave him confidence.
Fraudsters enticed him to invest in a fake website, promising even higher returns. On the same day he invested Rs 2,000, they cunningly returned Rs 3,150 as profit. Kartika was relieved by the apparent victory and trusted them more.
As days went by, the fraudsters assigned Karthika additional tasks and demanded huge sums of Rs 30,000, 50,000, 90,000. Unaware of the impending danger, Karthika persevered with their fraudulent scheme in the hope that his investments would grow.
When the income suddenly disappeared, Kartika questioned the fraudsters about it. To which they said that Kartika’s work had failed miserably. The scam kingpins convinced him to send more money to new transactions to recoup the money spent. Desperate to recover funds, Karthika and her husband took out personal loans to finance these transactions. But they did not know that it was the path of destruction.
The fraudsters demanded more money, saying they needed Rs 15 lakh to process Kartika’s outstanding payment. Afraid of repercussions, she and her husband sent the money. Both had little doubt in this context, but in their frenzy to get their money back, they gave everything they asked for.
Soon, the fraudsters demanded Rs 5 lakh 20 thousand as tax amount. As a result the couple felt cheated. They immediately reported the incident to the cyber police, hoping to catch the culprits and recover their hard-earned money.
The police registered a case under section 66D of the amended Information Technology Act, 2008 against the unknown culprits under cheating section. However, the money they invested in a fake Nasdaq stock trading website left them empty-handed and heavy-hearted.
Karthika’s story is a stark reminder of the dangers lurking in the virtual world. Online offers have taught us to be wary of being lured and to avoid falling prey to scams that lead to financial losses. In this digital age, the big task assigned to us is to be vigilant against the cunning schemes of cyber criminals!
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