PINJORE, May 15: A 41-year-old man with a PhD in law from Panjab University has been cheated out of ₹11.33 lakh in a cyber scam disguised as a work-from-home opportunity, police said on Wednesday.
The victim, Karan Godara, a resident of Amravati Enclave, lodged a complaint at the cyber crime police station, stating that the fraud began on May 6 when he received a WhatsApp message offering a lucrative remote job.
The message included a link directing him to contact a Telegram ID, where he was instructed to reach out to a person identifying himself as Raghav Patel.
Initially, Godara was assigned simple online tasks, for which small payments were credited to his bank account.
Encouraged by the returns, he was given more complex tasks that required him to transfer money to various bank accounts, according to the police.
“Between May 6 and May 8, Godara made multiple online transactions,” said an officer investigating the case.
“However, once he completed the tasks, there was no option provided to withdraw his earnings. The fraudsters then began demanding additional payments.”
Realizing he had been duped, Godara approached the police, and a case was registered under Sections 316-2 (criminal breach of trust), 318-4 (cheating), and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) — the newly enforced criminal code.
Cyber officials reiterated warnings to the public against falling for too-good-to-be-true online offers.
“Scammers often start by earning the victim’s trust through small returns and then manipulate them into transferring larger sums,” the officer added.
Investigations are ongoing, and efforts are underway to trace the bank accounts and digital footprints involved in the fraud.
