Panchkula resident loses ₹9 lakh to Telegram-based task fraud
The complainant, Amarjit Singh, stated that he received a message on Telegram on April 16; the sender, claiming to be Nisha, offered him awork-from-homejob involving several online tasks
A 30-year-old resident of Sector 19 lost over ₹9 lakh to a Telegram-based task fraud over a span of 15 days in April, police said on Friday.
The complainant, Amarjit Singh, stated that he received a message on Telegram on April 16. The sender, claiming to be Nisha, offered him awork-from-homejob involving several online tasks. He initially received a payment of ₹926, which helped gain his trust. After being lured, he was persuaded to deposit large amounts for unlocking further “high-paying tasks”.
Singh was initially shown an app balance of ₹10,96,673. When he attempted to withdraw the amount on April 26, he was told that to withdraw amounts over ₹2 lakh, he needed to deposit 50% as a “guarantee”, which he was assured could also be withdrawn later.
Trusting the process, Singh deposited ₹4,18,336, but was still unable to withdraw his funds. The fraudsters then claimed his “credit score” was 96%, and for accessing his money, he needed to deposit another ₹4 lakh for it to reach 100%.
Between April 16 and April 30, Singh deposited a total of ₹9,27,554 into the fraudsters’ bank accounts via the provided links. After realising he had been scammed, he subsequently filed a complaint on the cyber helpline number 1930.
The cybercrime police registered a case under Sections 316 (2) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on Friday.