COIMBATORE: A 62-year-old man in Coimbatore district was cheated of Rs 24.93 lakh in a part-time online job scam.According to police, V Subburaj, 62, of Pollachi received an advertisement on the Telegram messaging app offering a part-time job involving hotel booking and writing reviews on hotels. A cyber fraudster, using the Telegram handle @Miaaaana577, enticed Subburaj to create user IDs on malicious sites (including hotings.vip and httngt.com) and complete assigned tasks.The fraudster promised lucrative profit margins and instructed Subburaj to make a deposit to assign him tasks. He also promised that once the task was complete, the deposit amount along with the profit would be transferred. Believing this, he transferred a total sum of Rs 24,93,940 in 41 online transactions into various suspect bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.When he attempted to withdraw his earned profit, the scammers demanded an additional “tax payment.” Realising he had been duped, the man lodged a complaint with the district cybercrime police on Wednesday.Based on the complaint, police registered a case under sections 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, and started an investigation.
