Kannur: In yet another incident of cyber scam, a 34-year-old man hailing from Pariyaram here fell victim to a Telegram-based fraud losing an amount of Rs 47 lakh.
The fraudsters approached the victim with a work-from-home job offer of high pay for performing online tasks like promoting products and services of multi-national companies.
The youth's ordeal begun in last June when he received a message on his Telegram account from an unknown person. The individual, who claimed to represent a private limited marketing company, offered the youth a work-from-home job opportunity involving online promotional activities for various companies.
Attracted by the high pay offered by the fraudsters, the youth accepted the offer and started working for them after paying a registration fee of Rs 1,000. In the initial phase, he received a small sum of money as promised for completing the online tasks given by the company. He received a total sum of Rs 10,000 for completing simple tasks given by the scammers.
In the next stage, the fraudster allegedly came up with a fresh offer -a high rate of return for a minimum deposit. Trusting his employers, the youth transferred Rs 47 lakh from his bank account. However, he did not receive any return for his deposit for the last three months. When he enquired about the delay, the company convinced him that it was due to some clearances related to income tax. Recently, the company demanded more amount from him for income tax clearance.
Realising he had been scammed , the youth lodged a complaint with Pariyaram police.
Pariyaram Sub Inspector Sanjay Kumar PC said a case has been registered based on the youth's complaint.
"An investigation is on to bring the fraudsters before the law. We are trying to collect all details regarding the deals , the investigation officer added.
In another incident of online investment fraud, hundreds of people including government officers lost lakhs of rupees in the district. Reportedly, a native of Chakkarakkal in Kannur district alone lost Rs 1 crore after investing in a Canadian based company that offered high returns for his money. However, police have not registered any case in the incident as no written complaint was filed.
"In this case, the fraudsters had duped crores of rupees in the name of a Canadian company. But the victims who lost the money have not yet come forward to file a case against the company as most of them do not have any evidence to prove the deals,” said a police officer.
“Online fraudsters operate from outside the country almost always. It's no simple task to nab such fraudsters. The lone way to prevent such scams is awareness. People should be more vigilant while dealing with online entities,” the officer added.