Techies lose Rs 16.7 lakh to e-task frauds

PUNE: Two software engineers working with prominent IT companies in the city lost Rs 16.7 lakh collectively between June 14 and 17 in online task frauds.
The Nigdi and Hinjewadi police registered cases on Monday based on complaints from a 29-year-old woman in Akrudi and a 38-year-old man in Wakad. The woman lost Rs 14.4 lakh, while the man lost Rs 2.3 lakh.
Inspector Tejaswini Kadam of the Nigdi police said the complainant received a message on June 14 for a part-time job of liking videos. "She was sent a link of a video on her mobile messenger app and liked it. She immediately received Rs 150," Kadam said. She was told that her next tasks would be prepaid and she could earn good returns if she invested some money.
Assistant inspector Sandip Deshmukh of the Hinjewadi police told TOI that a similar modus was used to dupe the Wakad man. "He was given tasks to subscribe to channels on a video sharing website and was paid for it," Deshmukh said.