Two Hyderabadis Duped Through WhatsApp And Telegram

Two Hyderabad residents recently fell victim to job-related investment frauds carried out through WhatsApp and Telegram.

In the first case, a 35-year-old woman from Abids was approached on September 1 by a fraudster posing as Chandrika from Qube Research & Technologies Ltd. The woman was initially assigned a simple online task of posting Google reviews, and given small payments. Later, she was lured into "prepaid jobs" that required repeated deposits. Between September 1 and 5, she transferred a total of Rs 10,25,550. A fake online balance of Rs 15,57,900 was displayed, but withdrawals were blocked, and she was asked to deposit more money. Realizing she had been cheated, she filed a complaint with the police.

In the second case, a 44-year-old man from Asifnagar was contacted on August 28 by a woman identifying herself as Veena Khatri from Michael Page IT. He was initially assigned task of branded keyword searches and rewarded with small amounts. Later, he was directed to a fraudulent portal where he invested repeatedly. A fake frozen balance of Rs 3,49,200 was shown, and he was asked to deposit an additional Rs 3,50,000 to release the funds. Before realizing it was a scam, he had already lost Rs 1,61,720.

These incidents show a growing cybercrime trend where fraudsters offer fake jobs and prepaid online tasks to trick unsuspecting victims into losing substantial amounts of money.

The police are investigating both the cases.