Udupi: A resident of Udupi fell prey to a work-from-home scam after being contacted by an unknown person through the Telegram app, promising easy earnings by rating hotels online.
The complainant, Arun, initially received Rs 800 after completing two simple tasks. Encouraged by the quick returns, he was persuaded to pay Rs 3,000 for a third task, with the promise of earning Rs 4,500. After completing it, he was told another payment of Rs 10,500 was required to unlock the previous earnings.
Trusting the process, Arun made the transfer via Google Pay, only to be asked for a further Rs 29,800 through Paytm. The fraudster then falsely claimed that his “hotel rating account” had been frozen and demanded an additional Rs 42,632 to unfreeze it and release his accumulated funds.
By the time the scammer asked for more money again, Arun realised he had been defrauded. In total, Rs 82,932 was siphoned off through various digital payment platforms.
Following the incident, Udupi Town Police registered a case under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act.
Authorities have urged the public to remain vigilant and avoid making payments to unknown sources promising unrealistic returns under the guise of online jobs.