Cyber fraud and its operatives are on an alarming rise across the country. Working professionals and business owners are being targeted and made victims of these online scams.

One such incident surfaced in Ahmedabad, where Dhwani Vaja, a 32-year-old account and finance consultant based in Naranpura area, was scammed of ₹48.26 lakh by perpetrators luring her over a rewards-against-ratings scheme.

As per the FIR filed in this case on Nov 25, she was offered a part-time job on Jan 3 this year through WhatsApp by an individual named Sandeep, who allegedly represented a travel portal. She was then allegedly introduced to an individual named Savani Gupta. Following this, she accepted the offer.

Gupta briefed Vaja and made her carry out several registrations to engage in the scheme, which also involved an initial monetary commitment of ₹10,000.

Vaja then carried out daily tasks, which included liking and rating the travel services on the portal. These tasks were done on a makeshift website, which allegedly claimed to be the travel portal itself.

From Jan 4 to Feb 21, Vaja was made to pay a hefty sum, amounting to ₹48,26,507.

On a few occasions, several transactions totalled as high as nearly ₹11.5 lakh in a single day, which were deposited into accounts linked to three different banks and several other UPI IDs.

According to the FIR, Vaja was also rewarded with an amount totalling up to ₹57,122 in this scam.

Busting the racket

Upon demanding the remaining ₹47.69 lakh (apart from the ₹57,122 received), a banking and insurance regulator asked for approximately ₹8.14 lakh from her to unfreeze the deposited money. She was also persuaded by Gupta to pay this deposit amount. This raised suspicions and Vaja registered a complaint.

Cybercrime police has registered an FIR under IT Act 66(c) and 66(d), along with breach of trust (406) and (409), cheating (420), and criminal conspiracy (120b) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On further investigation, it was also found that the makeshift website has been changed to a different name and address. Meanwhile, upon inquiring at the travel portal company, it was revealed that they had no such rewards-for-ratings scheme either.

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