Online Hiring Scam: In today’s time many people look for online jobs. People are going to social media channels or job portals like LinkedIn or Glassdoor to find jobs to earn money. However, not all job postings on social media are genuine. Because of this people often fall in the trap of scams. Recently, a news has come to the fore that a woman has cheated a person from Mumbai of about Rs 4 lakh. The man was looking for a part time job to earn money.
Fraud as Amazon’s hiring manager
According to the Indian Express report, a 33-year-old man saw an advertisement for a job in Amazon on Facebook. After seeing the ad, to know more about the opportunity, he clicked on the link and received the WhatsApp number of a woman named Mary. The woman had described herself as the hiring manager of Amazon. He asked the victim if he was looking for a part time job. When the victim further inquired about the job, he told that the candidates have to work towards increasing the sales of the company’s online platform by completing various tasks.
The victim made a fool
A police officer said, "The complainant showed interest in the job, after which the hiring manager sent him a link and asked him to create his account to start working. On creating the account, the complainant first got a bonus of Rs.80. Later, the victim was instructed to recharge for Rs 200 and buy a product. After following the instructions and completing the task, the victim received Rs 450 in his e-wallet account. In this way the scammer managed to gain the victim’s trust and the victim kept on completing tasks like purchasing products and doing recharges to earn the bonus.
Hiring manager asked to pay taxes
Within a few days, the victim spent Rs 2.4 lakh and earned a total of Rs 5.13 lakh, which was deposited in his e-wallet account. However, later when the victim tried to transfer the money to his bank account, he received an error message saying that his request was rejected. When the victim asked the HR manager about this, he told that he would have to pay 20 per cent tax to withdraw the money. Otherwise, he will not be able to access the funds.
Pledged the family’s gold
According to the police, the complainant did not have the money to pay the tax, so he mortgaged his family’s gold and paid tax of Rs 1.02 lakh from the money he received. However, despite paying the tax, the victim still could not transfer the money from his e-wallet to his bank account. After taking the tax money, the scammers deactivated the victim’s account. The victim then realized that he had been cheated and had lost Rs 3.42 lakh. Later, he filed a complaint at the police station.
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