Two women were cheated of a total of Rs 40 lakh in separate incidents in the Gurgaon, Delhi-NCR region on the pretext of working from home and earning money by rating movies. The latest case occurred in Gurugram, where a 38-year-old woman named Meha Sethi was cheated of over Rs 28 lakh.
She joined a closed group on Telegram in December 2022 and was promised a job as a movie critic/agent for an American cinema company called Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The scamsters sent the participants a link to a fake website called http://www.iflixwork.com to rate movies. Meha sent money to various bank accounts from December 2022 until February 2023, hoping to earn a “profit” by rating movies.
She even borrowed money from her family, believing it was a legitimate work-from-home opportunity. However, she did not receive any returns and was instead asked to send more money in the name of income tax deductions.
The scamsters made her spend money through “small transactions” to cheat her for a longer period. Meha lost a total of Rs 28 lakh and has lodged an FIR. The police are investigating the case and checking the website, transaction details, and mobile numbers.
In a similar incident, a 33-year-old woman from Noida was also cheated of Rs 12 lakh by unknown scamsters who offered her a job to rate movies. The woman was asked to pay Rs 10,000 initially and click on a link 30 times to double her money.
She was then asked to pay more money in the name of getting better returns. The Noida police are yet to make any arrests in the case. The police have advised people to be cautious while joining such groups and to not fall for lucrative job offers that sound too good to be true.