Part-time Job Fraud Alert! Indian Housewife Loses 148,000 Rupees

A housewife from Yedmog village in Kundapur taluk of Udupi district is the latest victim of online part-time scam that costed her more than ₹1.48 lakh (148,000 rupees).

The 38-year-old housewife complained to the Shankarnarayana Police Station on August 18th that she had received a message on August 2nd from a person named Payal Sharma on Telegram saying that she could make money by performing tasks of MakeMyTrip India Private Limited. The housewife was asked to open the website www.mmtrte.com, enter the code 2HYTLA, and then perform the tasks.

Accordingly, the housewife opened the website and performed 30 tasks, with ₹1,000 deposited into her account in Union Bank of India, which is her joint account. On August 3rd, she received a message requesting her to send ₹11,000 for new tasks. On August 8th, she transferred ₹11,000 to UPI ID 9327708245m@pnb. As she did not receive any returns, she sent a message to Payal Sharma, who replied that she had received an executive order and that she had to pay ₹13,555 for it.

On  August 8th, The housewife made a transfer of ₹13,555 to sharmasirsa56@utkarshbank. Due to her inability to complete the task, the housewife was asked to transfer an additional ₹36,135. Besides, she sent ₹87,447 on August 16th. When she was unable to complete the task, she was asked to transfer more funds. Even in order to get her investment back, she was asked to send more money.

She has demanded that the police take action against those who swindled her of ₹148,139 by offering a fake part-time job.

So far, Mangaluru city police stations have received up to 51 complaints, claiming that people got scammed due to online part-time offers.

Police Commissioner Kuldeep Kumar R. Jain cautioned people in a statement to be vigilant against such scams, asking people not to reply to part-time job offers made using unknown international and domestic numbers on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Such numbers should be reported and blocked immediately. He also asked people not to open any links about part-time job offerings sent through email, SMS, or any other social media.

(Source: The Hindu)