Gujarat man likes and follows Instagram accounts, ends up losing Rs 12 lakh in online scam

Online scams are becoming more common and sophisticated in India, as cybercriminals use various tricks and techniques to lure unsuspecting victims into their traps. One such case is that of a man from Gujarat, who lost Rs 12 lakh in an online scam where he was promised a job as a social media influencer.

The victim, Prakash Sawant, is a 36-year-old resident of Subhanpura, Vadodara. He received a WhatsApp message from a woman named Divya in March, who offered him a part-time job on social media. She claimed that his task would be to like posts and follow accounts of popular Instagram personalities, and that he could earn Rs 200 for every two likes and up to Rs 15,000 per day.

To convince him of the legitimacy of the job, she sent him Instagram links and screenshots as proof, and also added him to various groups where he had to chat with other members. She also transferred Rs 200 to his bank account as a sign of trust.

Sawant agreed to the job and started liking posts and following accounts as instructed. He also got in touch with another woman named Lucy, who assigned him 25 tasks per day on YouTube. For completing these tasks, he received Rs 500 in his wife's bank account.

The scam took a turn when the fraudsters asked Sawant to complete some more prepaid tasks, which required him to deposit money with the promise of earning higher commissions. Initially, he paid Rs 1,000 and received back Rs 1,300. Then he paid Rs 10,000 and received back Rs 12,350. This made him believe that the scheme was genuine and profitable.

However, he soon realized that he had fallen into a trap when the scammers asked him to pay Rs 11.80 lakh to get Rs 45 lakh as a reward. By then, he had already paid a total of Rs 11.27 lakh to the fraudsters and completed all the tasks they had given him.