Mumbai: Electrician loses Rs 10 lakh in online task completion fraud

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A 27-year-old electrician lost Rs 10 lakh to the online ‘task completion' fraud as he was lured into sending money under the pretext of getting higher returns, the police said on Wednesday. The victim, employed with the MMRDA, received a call from a woman in October who offered him a part-time job, a police officer said.

The woman forwarded a WhatsApp link to the victim and asked him to complete online tasks like assigning ratings to reviews and liking videos on social media. "To gain the victim's trust, the fraudsters initially sent him Rs 200 on successful completion of a given task. He was subsequently added to a Telegram group," the officer said. The victim was promised higher returns after he sent small amounts as "fees" for completing the tasks, he said.

Convinced by the offer, he started sending money to bank account numbers provided in the WhatsApp group, the official said. "He ended up sending Rs 10 lakh since October but failed to get returns. Whenever he called the phone number of the woman, he failed to get any reply," he said. The victim realised that he was conned and approached the BKC police.

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