Cyber Talk: Know when your work-from-home job is a fraud

Victims are attracted towards social media advertisements and short links sent via WhatsApp and SMS on shopping/reselling on a fake shopping portal.

Hyderabad: Free work-at-home opportunities to high-paying for likes and reviews, to part-time jobs with full-time pay via SMS, WhatsApp, task-based part-time job scams offered on social media and messenger are many. Other similar scams include reseller opportunities with initial registrations and deposits, fake online Investment frauds and online crypto currency investment and mining.

Victims are often prompted to pay a processing, joining, or one-time registration fee to gain access to large sums of money from scammers who pretend to be officials from reputed investment firms.

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They steal the money by way of social engineering crimes (i.e., earned money accumulates and shows up in wallets, but victims will be unable to withdraw amounts).

Modus operandi of task-based frauds:

* Victims are attracted towards social media advertisements and short links sent via WhatsApp and SMS on shopping/reselling on a fake shopping portal

* Victims are asked to deposit anything between Rs 200 to Rs 10,000 following which they can “shop/resell”. Some companies may offer free amount already loaded on their wallets to get them enticed.

* Victims are asked to perform tasks (sell/buy) from the portal as part of their earning routine.

* The profit amounts are visible in the wallets, but the victims are unable to withdraw.

* The victim is requested to load more money and perform more tasks in order to be able to withdraw his earnings, The process continues in a loop, and once a large amount is invested by the victim, the fraudster stops responding over the chat and the victim loses all earnings, including his actual investments as shown in the dashboard/wallet.

Few red flags are: Promising abnormally high guaranteed returns, requesting a high initial investment, investing in apps not listed in the App Store or Play Store and unregistered companies, advertisements by fake social media influencers, bonuses if you recruit your friends and family into the fraudulent schemes.

Few Safety Tips:

* Research the company or individual offering the job or task. Look for information and check for reviews or complaints from other people who have worked with them.

* Don’t provide bank and personal information unless you ascertain that the opportunity is legitimate. Legitimate companies and individuals will not ask for personal and financial information upfront.

* Be wary of job opportunities that sound too good to be true. If a job opportunity promises extremely high pay for little work or requires no experience, it may be a scam.

* Check for warning signs, be on the lookout for poor grammar or spelling in job listings or emails, requests to pay an upfront fee, or pressure to act quickly before an opportunity is gone.

* Never make payment upfront or joining fee for any opportunity that talks about work from home job.

* Trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right about a job or task opportunity, don’t proceed.

What to do when you get scammed online:

Immediately call the toll-free number 1930 “Citizen Financial Fraud Management System” within an hour of realising the fraud or you can report the crime as a complaint on https://www.cybercrime.gov.in.

If you want to file a complaint under the “One Nation, One Ombudsman” scheme (if the money was lost via UPI payment), you can call the toll-free number 14448 or go to https://cms.rbi.org.in.

If the victim’s money is still available in the fraudster’s account, the respective bank will put it on hold. Subsequently, the complainant has to appear in court formally, and then the money is transferred to the complainant’s account.

Stay tuned to the Cyber Talk Column for more information on “Internet Ethics and Digital Wellness,” brought to you by Anil Rachamalla from End Now Foundation. www.endnowfoundation.org