Don’t fall for these online job offers

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Scam regarding job of liking post on youtube, social media was already going on and now scam regarding work from home is also increasing rapidly. Abhinav became victim of one such fraud. Let’s understand what happened with Abhinav. He got a call from unknown number.

In a phone call, Abhinav was offered a part-time job on a reputable e-commerce site. He was told that the work would be quite easy – mainly involving sales of certain products and boosting their rankings. The earnings would come in a wallet on the site. Abhinav accepted the offer. Soon, money started accumulating in his wallet, but he began receiving notifications that he could only withdraw the money after reaching a certain amount. This way, Abhinav managed to accumulate around 1 lakh rupees. Following this, he was asked to deposit 10,000 rupees by the company.

Abhinav was informed that this was a kind of fee. Only after paying this fee, he would be able to withdraw his money from the wallet. It was explained that these funds would be returned later. Abhinav went ahead and paid the amount as instructed. However, even after paying, he didn’t receive the salary that was showing in his wallet. He attempted to call the people who had contacted him for the job, but now they were nowhere to be found. What Abhinav experienced is known as an e-commerce site job fraud.

As per report, job fraud on e-commerce sites have international links.

Such kinds of fraud are happening from China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Chinese companies are doing such fraud through their Indian agents.

In recent times, the government has been consistently imposing bans on Chinese apps. Following that, there is now a rise in cases where people are falling victim to Chinese scam e-commerce sites. In the past few months, Delhi police alone has received around a dozen complaints regarding such incidents

Now let us look at how these frauds happen.

Scammers create websites resembling well-known e-commerce platforms to deceive people into believing they are being offered job opportunities. They typically reach out to individuals through apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or even SMS. After initiating contact, they present job offers. Just like Abhinav’s case, they tell people that the job is quite simple—mainly involving sales of certain products and improving their rankings. Individuals are then instructed to create work IDs on the site. Once IDs are created, people are assigned e-wallets, where they can view their balances, tasks, orders, withdrawals, and product sales. Users can see sales of products on their IDs or profiles and witness money being credited to their wallets. However, when they try to withdraw money, they start encountering more tasks and details. To initiate withdrawals, they are asked to deposit an amount equivalent to the value of these additional tasks into their wallets. They are told that this value will be returned after completing the tasks. But even after depositing money, people are unable to withdraw their supposed earnings from their wallets.

Moreover, many times people also receive links to fraudulent schemes. The message often claims that it’s a highly profitable scheme exclusively meant for employees. They are encouraged to invest, promising substantial returns. However, as soon as they invest their money, the scammers disappear, taking the funds with them.

How to avoid such frauds?

It’s a huge question.

To understand this, it’s important to realize that you should never have to pay money for a job. Legitimate companies do not operate in such a manner. Exercise caution when using social media. If an unknown person or site contacts you, be alert. Avoid answering calls from unfamiliar numbers on platforms like WhatsApp. Always verify the credibility of websites.

If after all the careful consideration you still become victim of such fraud and loose your money,

You can file complaint with cybercrime reporting portal – cybercrime.giv.in or toll-free national helpline number 1930.