Kamath said that after the fraud on WhatsApp, one of his acquaintances suffered a loss of lakhs. In a series of tweets, he said the man suffered a loss of around Rs 5,00,000 after falling victim to a part-time job offer fraud.
In return, the victim promised to give money fake reviews
Kamath said the victim responded to a part-time job offer on WhatsApp asking the victim to leave fake reviews for resorts and restaurants in random places like Peru in exchange for Rs 30,000.
The victim was then added to a Telegram group in which group members claimed to have completed these tasks as well.
The next task for the group was to trade on a fake crypto platform following a set of rules. He said that at this stage, the profit generated was allowed to be withdrawn, that too without any actual money being transferred.
“By the way, it was not bitcoin or ethereum, but random crypto tokens whose prices could be easily manipulated by fraudsters,” Kamath said.
The group was then asked to transfer real money to generate higher returns. He explained that others in the group instigated his friend to do so, claiming that they had invested in the platform.
‘Greed took over’
Kamath said that his friend transferred Rs 30,000 he earned from the profit, but others in the group pressured the victim to make “bigger transfers” and make bigger profits.
“The person tried to withdraw but could not and was told that a certain number of traders were required. The fear of being unable to withdraw took over, and more money was added to the trade. This amounts to Rs 5 lakh. The amount was a huge amount for any person,” he said.
According to Kamath, the crypto platform also offered loans “when the person said there was no more money to add.” After narrating the whole incident to her husband, the victim soon realized that the whole operation was fake.