Summary: Thiruvananthapuram continues to witness a rise in online job scams, with five more people falling victim to fraudulent activities and losing lakhs of rupees within a span of 48 hours. The victims, including two women and a 62-year-old man, were contacted by the scammers who offered them various online jobs. Despite awareness drives, these fraudsters managed to deceive the victims by snatching their money and disappearing. The victims were promised attractive salaries and, in some cases, even offered artificial intelligence-based trading jobs. The scammers initially gained the trust of their targets by providing timely payments, but later demanded money to continue in the job. Police have registered cases against the fraudsters under relevant sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.
Despite the efforts to create awareness and educate the public about online scams, Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, remains a hotbed for such frauds. Scammers have come up with new tactics to lure unsuspecting individuals into their traps, leaving them devastated and financially ruined.
One of the victims, Rajani Kumari R, was enticed with an online job that involved reviewing firms, offering an attractive salary package. Initially, everything seemed legitimate as the scammer provided timely payments. However, the scammer later requested additional money to allow her to continue working. Trapped in the illusion of a promising opportunity, Rajani Kumari R paid the requested amount at various intervals, only to realize that the scammer had vanished with her hard-earned savings, amounting to a staggering Rs 6.17 lakhs.
Similar stories unfolded for the other victims as well. Devika S lost Rs 2.38 lakhs, Manoj M lost Rs 1.28 lakhs, Vishnu P lost Rs 75,000, and Jayachandran K S became the victim of a more elaborate scam, losing a whopping Rs 6.38 lakhs. Jayachandran was instructed to log in to a fake website for an artificial intelligence-based trading job. Little did he know that the scammer would snatch his bank account details and use them to steal money from his account before disappearing without a trace.
The Thiruvananthapuram Police have taken action against these fraudsters by registering cases under sections 419 and 420 of the IPC for cheating and section 66 (D) of the Information Technology Act. However, it serves as a reminder to the public to remain vigilant when engaging in online job opportunities and to thoroughly research and verify the legitimacy of any offers received.
The source of the article is from the blog rugbynews.at