Chikhali homemaker duped of Rs 9.75 lakh in job fraud

PUNE: A 30-year-old homemaker from Chikhali was allegedly duped of Rs9.75 lakh by fraudsters in the first week of April on the pretext of a part-time online job.
The victim filed a complaint application with the Pimpri Chinchwad police's cyber crime cell. After an initial probe, the case was referred to Chikhali police on Thursday.
According to senior inspector Dyaneshwar Katkar of the Chikhali police, the victim is a commerce graduate who worked with a private company.
"She was on the lookout for a part-time job after the delivery of her child. On April 3, she received a message which promised good income for working one hour a day," Katkar said.
The officer said the victim was asked to join a group on a messenger app, where she was asked to perform a few online tasks and was appropriately compensated for them.
"The fraudsters then asked her to invest in pre-paid tasks and promised her higher returns. The complainant subsequently paid them Rs9.75 lakh between April 3 and 5, using her savings as well as her husband's," Katkar said.
The victim, Katkar said, realized she was duped when she was asked to pay more money for withdrawing the Rs3.7 lakh profit, which showed on her profile on the app.
Katkar said that so far, the investigation has revealed that the victim's money was transferred to accounts in private banks in Andheri, Borivali, Kurla (all in Mumbai) and Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh.